below par, when our executors pay Estate Duty, and they thus only carry this special advantage when held by investors whose estate is large enough to be taxed. In the case of all other securities dealt in in the stock markets, the investor can only get his money back by waiting for the date of redemption, if any, or for the chance of having his bond drawn for repayment, if the security is redeemed by a sinking fund operating in this manner, or by selling in the market at the current price.
And so we arrive at the terms of debt redemption, which are the next question to be considered, after the certainty of the interest payment. Those investors whose circumstances are such that a need to turn their holdings into cash is a highly improbable contingency and only want a collection of stocks that they can sleep on soundly, can take securities with a very remote date of redemption or perpetual securities which are definitely labelled as irredeemable. To such an investor, however, it is very important to be sure that the debtor has not got an option of redeeming if it suits him to do so. For example, the 5 per cent. War Loan can be paid off at par at any time after 1929, so that after that date its holders will be in danger of having their money, or the face value of their stock, returned to them
