Dominions by the high prices at which they sold, during and after the war, the food and materials that are their staple products has done something to put solid assets behind the debts that they built up so fast, but the pace of debt creation, especially by the Australasian States, has nevertheless hardly slackened. And political developments in India and the measure of self-government accorded to her population has given a different aspect to the obligations issued in its name.
These considerations make it very important for investors not to be misled by a belief that because a stock is a trustee security it is, therefore, absolutely safe. As far as a trustee is concerned it is safe, from the point of view of his own pocket—if the debtor should default, the beneficiaries under the trust would: have no case against the trustee, who had invested according to the Act. But the trustee is the only party to the transaction to whom safety is secured. He is fully entitled to this safety, for he performs a difficult, responsible, and generally thankless task, and is apt to be looked on by the beneficiaries, whose interests he protects, as a tiresome nuisance.
It is often argued, sometimes even by stockbrokers who ought to know what security means, that "the British Government could
