ANNUITY FUND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1941, Page 6

ANNUITY FUND

OWNED BY MARSHAL PETAIN — i . TRANSFER FROM BRITAIN PERMITTED. ' STATEMENT BY CHANCELLOR CF EXCHEQUER. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) RUGBY, November 11. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Kingsley Wood, was asked in the House of Commons whether he had inquired into the smeunt of investment funds deposited by Marshal Petain in Britain, and whether Marshal Petain haa been allowed to' transfer the capital, or the dividends on such investments, to France, and if so what were the circumstances in which the. Marshal was granted these exceptional privileges. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that a transfer had been allowed in respect to an annuity, of £6OO, taken cut, but paid in sterling, with a Canadian company in 1927. An exception had been made from the normal position on the ground that the Marshal was the head of a State and that his contract was with a Canadian company and that Canada was still in diplomatic relations with Vichy. No other sums were being transferred to Marshal Petain and he had no information of any other property in Britain owned by Marshal Petain.

Further asked if he would reconsider the policy of the Government in refusing to allow money to be sent out of Britain to children evacuated to America under the Government’s policy, the Chancellor replied that he was considering the matter.