1. A mortgage is defined as ‘a conditional conveyance of, or lien upon, land or other property as security for the performance of some condition, as the payment of money, becoming void on the performance of the condition’.

2. The emphasis is on ‘the performance of some condition’, and it is with this aspect that the lender is mainly concerned. The ‘payment of money’ will include interest on the amount advanced and repayment of principal by an agreed method—the latter by paying the premiums on a suitable policy, where the majority of new life office mortgages are concerned.

1. The purpose of this paper is to consider procedures involved and the records and documents required after a life proposal has been accepted. It is mainly concerned with a particular office using a punched card system, the changes which have taken place and the further changes in prospect as other office machinery is brought into use.

In particular, the use of automatic typewriters for the production of policy and other documents is examined.

In the office concerned there has been a rapid expansion both in quantity of business and diversity in type of business. The tendency has been for a multiplicity of records to be built up for reference purposes and to control the Powers punched cards used for premium collection, valuation, etc. Energetic attempts have been made from time to time to reduce the work involved in setting up, housing, and accurately maintaining these records.

1. The S.A. 56/58 Ultimate data (see J.I.A. Vol. 87, p. 371) was originally graduated by summation formula and arising out of the discussions it was decided to attempt to fit a mathematical formula of the Perks type.

2. To start with, data below age 30 were excluded.

3. The generalized Perks formula

was chosen—the thought being that if some of the parameters were not needed the process of curve fitting would result in these parameters assuming small values.

I first became interested in economics round about 1931 when I started studying for the Fellowship. None of you have experienced what it is like to live through a severe depression. In Liverpool unemployment was some 25% to 30% of the insured population. My brother and two cousins lost their jobs and were out of work for a long period. It was extremely demoralizing for them and the character of one was adversely affected for the rest of his life. This situation influenced me very much and made me an ardent radical. It seemed to me ridiculous that an economy should be working at full capacity one year and at 75% to 50% the next. Something was clearly wrong with the way we organized things. The mistakes were those of human beings and not those of God. (At that time many people did think that such things as trade cycles and rates of interest were natural phenomena.) To my young and simple mind an economic plan seemed a simple scheme to construct and I felt that it was only the obstruction of vested interests and the ignorance of the general public that prevented enlightened people putting into operation a plan that would preserve full employment and a reasonable standard of living for everybody. The experience of recent years suggests that there is much truth in this.

The treaty was signed by France, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, Italy and West Germany on 25 March 1957, and came into effect on 1 January 1958. The following is a summary of some of the relevant provisions of the Treaty. Since the Treaty is very long and complex it is inevitable that a short summary will appear to be incomplete and, in many respects, drastic and uncompromising. We think, however, that what is more important than a complete knowledge of the Treaty is the spirit which has prevailed throughout the negotiations and carrying out of the Treaty so far. It is essential to feel and understand this spirit of goodwill, fellowship and determination to succeed in order to tackle successfully the problems before us.