Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/241

 they have done all that is required, and as we see, the Schedule drawn up by the wisdom of Parliament seems to be designed to tell us almost nothing about the investments of insurance companies.

It makes the companies show (which is something) how much is in British Government securities, but such headings as Railway and other debentures or ordinary stocks, and Foreign Government securities are quite worthless to anyone who wants to know what securities the companies hold. Foreign Government securities range from the obligations of the United States to those of Honduras; and "Railway and other ordinary" might include wild cat mining or oil shares. It would be an education for most of us to be able to see what are the investments of the great insurance companies; as it is, we can only see that they are divided into certain headings, and once more call upon that confidence in the directors and managers, which has so often to act as a crutch for the groping investor, to guide us to the belief that all these are sound and suitable. Fortunately the crutch generally does its work; but if all the great insurance companies would publish with their balance's heets a full list of their investments, they would provide a most useful guide to those