On the Report of the War Loan Obligations Bill next day (Nov. 27) important statements were made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the First Lord of the Admiralty, reviewing the financial and naval position respectively. The former said that the Government had taken unprecedented responsibilities in the interest of the mechanism of international trade. In the Napoleonic wars practically all the countries were self-contained; Great Britain's total imports and exports amounted in value to some 86,000,000_l._; in 1912 their value exceeded 1,400,000,000_l._ The international trade in the Napoleonic wars amounted to perhaps 200,000,000_l._; in 1913 it was valued at 3,000,000,000_l._, and Great Britain provided the capital to raise and move the produce, and carried half the produce, of the world. Transactions between merchants in China and the United States, for instance, were paid for by bills of exchange on London. Very little of the business was done with gold; London in 1913 received 50,000,000_l._ in gold and paid out 45,000,000_l._ All this delicate paper machinery crashed into a war affecting two-thirds of the world. There was inevitable confusion, and a deadlock, due to a failure of remittances from abroad to cover bills representing 350,000,000_l._ to 400,000,000_l._ There was a complete breakdown of the exchanges, as if a shell had broken an aqueduct; Argentina owed Great Britain 400,000,000_l._, but the latter could not buy a single cargo of frozen meat. Had the machine been left broken, the general distress in Great Britain would have been unutterable. The Government had to save British industry, commerce, and labour. They had invited the assistance of men of great experience, and eventually had set up a permanent advisory Committee. He acknowledged the great assistance rendered by Mr. Chamberlain, Lords St. Aldwyn and Revelstoke, and the Lord Chief Justice, the latter, with Sir John Bradbury, constituting a Court of Appeal. They decided that something must be done at once to avert a run on the banks, and declared a limited moratorium, and then decided to advance to the banks Treasury notes up to 20 per cent. of their deposits. At first the banks availed themselves of this currency facility to the extent of 13,000,000_l._; the sum outstanding was only 244,000_l._ The currency notes of 1_l._ and 10_s._ outstanding amounted to 33,892,000_l._, 25,696,000_l._ being in 1_l._ notes. Next, the Government guaranteed the payment of all bills accepted by British houses, giving them a reasonable time to collect them. Great Britain had assets of some 4,000,000,000_l._ of good foreign securities, and some 13,000,000,000_l._ worth of collieries, mines, factories, etc., at home; to allow its credit to remain doubtful for some 350,000,000_l._, all or nearly all owing to British subjects, would have been criminal. By these three steps the unimpeachable character of the British bill of