on this question, and Mr. J. W. Bowen of the Union of Post 
Office Workers attended before us to give evidence on their behalf. 
Mr. Bowen instanced the development that had taken place on the 
continent, and made particular reference to the successful development 
of the Belgian Postal Cheque System. He contended that as the 
Postmaster-General is one of the biggest bankers in the country, 
with over ten million depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank, a 
Postal Cheque System should be introduced for the benefit of those 
depositors, which would attract other depositors and fresh money 
with advantage to the State. He considered that there was still a 
large excess of floating money in this country which could be tapped 
to advantage by the extension of cheque facilities, and held that it 
would be to the advantage both of the public and of the banks if 
a class of the population which was not touched by commercial 
banking could be educated in the use of banking facilities. 
10. Cheque facilities for Savings Bank Depositors.—In the light 
of these representations the question of an extension of Savings Bank 
facilities in the direction of enabling Savings Bank depositors to 
draw cheques on their accounts was examined. It is thought that 
depositors would find it convenient to deposit in their Savings Bank 
accounts some of the cash that they now retain to hand for sundry 
payments and to take out cheques against such additional balances. 
The primary difficulty in applying facilities of this kind to Savings 
Bank depositors is the fact that no references are required from 
them as in the case of the customers of commercial banks. There 
would therefore be considerable danger in allowing them the use of 
cheque books without some additional safeguards. 
11. Savings Bank Limited Cheques.—A means of affording such 
safeguards would be to place a maximum limit on the amount of 
the cheques that could be drawn and to issue such cheques only 
when balances were sufficient to cover the maximum amount 
drawable. The cheques could be of various maximum limits such 
as £10, £5, £2, and £1 and could be drawn for any sum within the 
maximum, and books containing such cheques in denominations to 
aggregate to amounts of £50 and £20, or such other amounts as 
might be found suitable, could be made up and issued against 
equivalent balances. A “stop ”” would be placed on the account to 
the extent of the maximum value of the cheques, and a similar entry 
would be made in the deposit book. The cheques would be sent 
direct by the drawer to the payee like ordinary cheques and would 
be presented normally through a bank. They would be crossed. 
12. Costs of Limited Cheques.—The effect of introducing cheques 
for Savings Bank depositors would probably be to increase the 
number of transactions in accounts where cheques were used, i.e., 
to give them more the nature of current accounts, but as a set-off 
against this extra expense there would be a tendency to raise the 
average balances in such accounts. To meet the cost of the additional 
work of handling the cheques we suggest that no interest should 
(C13497) 
Ly