APPENDIX

83

On March 31, 1939, the gold resources of the Bank ofEngland and the Exchange Equalisation Fund amounted to79,950,000 ounces, worth £671,600,000 at the present valueof gold (168/- per oz.). Between that date and September 1there was a substantial reduction to meet withdrawals offoreign balances from London , but the figures for later datesare not being published. The Federal Reserve Board of theUnited States has, however, published an estimate of theresources of the belligerents on the eve of the war (end ofAugust, 1939) according to which British gold holdings hadfallen by that date to approximately £500,000,000. Thisfigure has to be taken in conjunction with a similar estimateof £750,000,000 gold held by France at the end of Augustand £54,000,000 held by Canada. It takes no account ofother Empire gold reserves or of the annual output of newlymined gold within the Empire estimated at £187,000,000.

This authority estimates British dollar balances at thesame date at nearly £150,000,000, French doUar balances atnearly £80,000,000 and Canadian dollar balances at nearly£90,000,000. There is no available estimate of other British balances abroad.

Sir Robert Kindersley has estimated the total nominalcapital of British foreign investments at the end of 1938 atnearly £3,700 million, of which, however, only a fraction iseasily realisable. About £3,000 million of this total consistedof sterling loans and of shares of companies registered inGreat Britain , most of which could not be realised. Never-theless there is a fair proportion of these holdings which isbeing repaid each year in ordinary course, say £40 to £50million annually; and some substantial loans for which repay-ment could be arranged in existing circumstances (an importantCanadian loan already dealt with in this way is a case inpoint) are included in this total. Perhaps we could put thetotal figure thus realisable over a period of three years atnot less than £250,000,000.

Holdings in companies registered abroad, estimated bySir Robert Kindersley at nearly £700,000,000, can be regardedas much more liquid. The U.S. Federal Reserve Board estimate of British holdings of American readily marketablesecurities at the outbreak of war is about £185,000,000, towhich can be added in case of necessity a further £225,000,000of other securities, including direct British owned propertyin U.S.A. It is interesting to note that, according to American