This then was the type of man who had sat in the six meetings of War
Loan for Small Investors and listened to many conventional suggestions.
He instinctively knew that the Five Pound Exchequer Bond was not a
sufficient bait to hook the small savings of the great mass of the
people.
"We've got to make some kind of attractive offer," said Sir Hedley to
himself. "In fact, we must give the investor something for nothing to
make him lend his money to the country. A pound note looks big to the
average Englishman. Why not give him a pound for every fifteen shillings
and sixpence that he will lay aside for the use of the Nation? In other
words, why not make patriotism profitable?"
When he laid this plan before the Committee, it was unanimously
approved. The maxim of "Fifteen and Six for a Pound" was now unfurled to
the breezes and the super-campaign to corral the British penny was on,
under the auspices of the National War Savings Committee which now
superseded all other organisations as the head and front of the National
Thrift idea.
Although he had a strong selling appeal in the fact that he was giving
the small British investor something for nothing, Sir Hedley realised
that his first bid for savings must have the real punch of war in it.
What was it to be?
He thought a moment and then went over to the War Office where Lloyd
George had just succeeded the lamented Kitchener.
"What could a man buy for fifteen and six?" he asked the many-sided
little Welshman who was progressively filling every important job in the
Empire.
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