G. And E. Funds

A STATEMENT in the official Gazette of the Western Pacific High Com mission, shows the financial posi tion, as at November 30. 1941. of ths Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, the administration of which is now virtually suspended, owing to the war situation. At that date, the Treasurer of the Colony held in cash or liauid securities the sum of nearly £250.000. Of this amount, £150,000 was held on behalf of the Bana bans (the native people of Ocean Island who receive royalties from the British Phosphate Commission upon all the phos phate taken out of the island). This money is safely invested. The balance, something over £BO.OOO, being held by the Treasurer, pending the return of the Colony to normal conditions, when the machinery of government presumably will be set in motion again.