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INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
Page
1
REPORT:
...
Introductory
Government Liability
Savings Bank Accounts
Expenses of Management
Publication of Accounts
Control of Bank and its Funds
1
2
2
3
3
4
Employment of Savings Bank Funds
4
Rate of Interest on Deposits
6
Financial Relations between Savings Bank Funds and Public Revenues
7
Suggested Method of dealing with Surpluses and Deficits on Revenue and Expen-
diture Account
8
Size of Reserve
9
Deficits and Surpluses on Capital Account
9
Limits of Deposits
0
Thrift Propaganda
10
Precaution against Fraud
Summary of Recommendations
Model Ordinance
APPENDIX "A.” Model Ordinance
10
11
11
13
APPENDIX B." Model Accounts
15
APPENDIX C." Memorandum on the United Kingdom Post Office Savings Bank
Department Expenses of Management
15
ANNEXURES.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES TO EXAMINE THE SAVINGS BANKS SYSTEMS IN THE COLONIES.
SIR,
Membership of Committee:
Mr. P. H. EZECHIEL, C.M.G. (a Crown Agent for the Colonies), Chairman. Mr. J. C. FISHER, O.B.E. (Colonial Audit Department).
Mr. F. J. HoWARD. O.B.E. (Colonial Office).
Mr. G. ISMAY (Treasury).
Mr. J. THOMPSON (Post Office Savings Bank).
Mr. A. H. HICKS (Office of the Crown Agents for the Colonies), Secretary.
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
We were appointed by you to make an examination into the various savings banks systems in the Colonies, with the following terms of reference:
"To examine and report on the savings banks systems in the Colonies, with special reference to the investment of funds, the rate of interest allowed, the treatment of surpluses or deficits and the relationship of savings bank accounts to the accounts of Colonial Governments; and to consider whether it is possible to draft a model Ordinance or code of regula- tions to govern the control and management of colonial savings banks." We concluded that these terms of reference did not extend to the commercial savings banks which exist in certain of the Colonies, and that it was not intended that we should examine the position of individual Government savings banks.
We have had ten meetings, which, by the courtesy of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, were held at their offices in Millbank, Mr. Fisher was unable to be present at the first two meetings, but in his place the committee had the assistance of Mr. C. E. Dale, C.M.G., C.B.E., at present attached to the Colonial Audit Department, and at one time Financial Commissioner to the Government of Southern Nigeria.
Our examination of the savings banks systems in the Colonies has been confined to the Ordinances affecting the operation of the Government savings banks in the various Colonies and to the information concerning these banks contained in Colonial Blue Books and Annual Reports.
We now submit our report.
Propaganda Posters and Pamphlets issued by the United Kingdom Post Office Savings Bank
Department.
Regulations of the United Kingdom Post Office Savings Bank Department:-
Regulations, 1921.
Amendment (No. 1) Regulations, 1928.
(No. 2)
1927.
++
(No. 3)
1929.
(No. 4)
1931.
(No. 5)
1932.
Savings Banks (Limits of Anuual Deposit) Order, 1929.
* Not reproduced.
REPORT.
INTRODUCTORY.
1. There are in the Colonies, Protectorates and Mandated Territories (all of which we shall in the course of this report include for the sake of brevity in the term "Colonies") 42 Government savings banks, the total deposits in which amounted at the end of 1932 to some £7,650,000 standing to the credit of some 896,000 depositors. We are not in possession of figures showing the position at the end of 1933, but the reports of certain individual savings banks for the latter year which we have examined show, in many cases, increases in the total deposits of as much as 20 per cent, over the 1932 figures. So considerable an increase at a time of world-wide depression, a depression which has fallen with especial severity on the Colonies as producers of primary commodities, must raise doubts as to the character of some of the money which is being attracted to the savings banks. We shall revert to this question at a later stage (see paragraphs 19 and 32 below).
2. The Colonial savings banks vary considerably in size, ranging from banks in Malta and Ceylon with deposits of some £1,100,000 and £900,000 re- spectively and depositors numbering 11,000 and 350,000 respectively down to Somaliland with 98 depositors and £1,182 deposits, the Cayman Islands with 64 depositors and £2,055 deposits, and Montserrat with 119 depositors and £565 deposits. This variety of size, apart from any considerations peculiar to in- dividual Colonies, makes it impossible to prescribe a rigid code governing the
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