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of its premiums so long as its total deposit does not exceed $200,000. The Ordinance is thus less stringent than the English Act which requires a deposit of about $200,000 (i.e. £20,000) before a company can start operations at all. The only objection which I have seen to the English deposit of £20,000 is that it

prevents the formation of new Mutual Insurance Societies, which is hardly an objection to weigh much with existing Insurance societies.

The rouse of Lords Committee not only (following the opinion of most of the actuaries examined) approved the £20,000 deposit but recommended that it should be

made permanent so that it could not be withdrawn as at present when the premiums amount to £40,000 on the ground that the existence of a permanent deposit would guarantee to the British policy holders the power to

sue a foreign company in the British Courts and would

prevent such a company shutting up its offices in

Cin the care of) Fngland and leaving the country as the Mutual Resorve

Fund of New York,

The objection to the deposit being earmarked

for the benefit of the local policy holders raises a

difficult question. It is easy to argue that one set of creditors should not be given a preference over the

others, that it is unfair to foreign policy holders that

all the funds of a company including those abroad should

be liable for the satisfaction of the policies issued

in Hong Kong but that the funds deposited in Hong Kong

should not be liable for the foreign policies. But when

so many countries adopt the earmarking policy, it can hardly be said that others must not take similar steps to protect their own policy holders. In any case the

$200,000