CO129-615-2 Income tax 10-3-1947 - 6-2-1948 — Page 43

3655/1.

GOVERNMENT ACTUARY'S Dept.,

CAXTON HOUSE EAST,

TOTHILL STREET,

42 28

ΤΑΞΗ Ο Ο

LONDON, S.W.1.

36th

September, 1947.

H. Palmer Esq., 0.B.E. Colonial Office,

Room 546,

,

Church House,

Great Smith Street, S.W. 1.

Dear Palmer,

Here is the answer to your telephone enquiry. The latest British Tables giving columns of expectations of life for annuitants are contained in a volume entitled "The Mortality of Annuitants, 1900-1920" by Elderton and Oakley. The book is published by

C. & E. Layton, Farringdon Street, E. C. 4., at a cost of two guineas.

The experience on which the above tables are based is, as you will see, not very recent and in the circumstances the Hong Kong Government may prefer the later American tables to which you referred.

I do not know for what purpose the values of expectation of life are required. It is fatally easy to draw incorrect conclusions by the use of this function and unless the function is used under actuarial advice the results obtained are likely to be quite unsound.

Yours sincerely,

4. Freeman