disbursement for account of the company, and all checks, drafts and letters of instruction must be countersigned or approved by the Alien Property Custodian, or by some person duly authorized thereto by him; except that the licensee may, without countersignature, pay not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars to any one claimant in settlement of a loss claim under a policy of liability, casualty or workman's compensation insurance, but no payment shall be made to any unlicensed enemy or ally of enemy as defined in the trading with the enemy act. 4. That statements of all income or outgo and of all assets, liabilities or other affairs of the company shall be rendered when and as required by the Alien Property Custodian, and shall be mailed to the Alien Property Custodian or delivered to such person as shall be duly authorized by him to receive such statement. 5. That all costs or expenses incurred by the Alien Property Custodian or his duly authorized representative in carrying out the foregoing provisions shall be borne by the company. 6. That no communication of any kind be sent out of the United States by the licensee in any manner except with the permission of the Treasury Department. 7. That nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any transaction by the company, its managers or trustees contrary to the laws of any state, territory or the District of Columbia. 8. This license is subject to revocation on notice. FIRE INSURANCE IN FRANCE In France the fire insurance companies have had a difficult history, since a considerable part of the country either has been occupied by the enemy, or has been occupied by the French, British and other Allied armies in their efforts to force the enemy out of the country. From the beginning of the struggle, the disturbance occasioned by the war has affected the whole nation. and the business of fire insurance has suffered from this chaotic condition. The pressure on industry has been very great: the derangement of the usual life and activities of the people has been profound; the strain of war has brought about, as in all nations, a certain indifference to the ordinary safeguards of property exposed to fire. The peculiar conditions arising out of the war have made necessary an understanding between the property, interests and the fire insurance companies in France. An arrangement was therefore made, says the French agricultural paper, La Vie Agricole, between the President of the Committee of General Fire Insurance Interests and the President of the Association of French Industry and Agriculture. It was agreed that the position of mobilized persons and insured persons, particularly those in the invaded regions, should be determined as follows: Nonpayment of Premiums. The nonpayment of premiums shall in no case entail forfeiture of the rights of the assured during the entire period of hostilities. Risks Destroyed, Disappeared or Reduced by Act of War. The following four cases contemplate only the assured in the invaded regions: First Case. The premium is entirely refunded when it has been paid after the destruction or complete disappearance of the risks prior to its falling due. Second Case. When the destruction or complete disappearance is subsequent to the payment of the premium, the company shall refund as many times one-twelfth of the premium as there were entire months remaining to run, at the time of destruction or disappearance, until the expiry of the period for which the premium had been paid. Third Case. When the destruction or complete disappearance takes place after the due date but before the payment of the premium, the company shall only require the payment of as many times one-twelfth of the premium as correspond to the number of months elapsed between the maturity of the premium and the destruction or disappearance of the risk, any fraction of a month being reckoned as a complete month. Fourth Case. In the event of partial destruction or disappearance, whatever the value of the part destroyed or disappeared, the cancelation or splitting up into fractions of the premium is calculated on the foregoing basis, in proportion to the reduction of the capital insured. This reduction is recorded by a memorandum stipulating that it is not a definitive reduction but a partial suspension. On the date of partial or complete restoration of the risk the assured is, on the other hand, bound to declare the extent of the restoration of the risk immediately to the company and to require from the latter the completion of his insurance. For additional insurance against the risk of suspension of business the companies follow the same rules as in the insurance of material risks. The cases specified above, whether destruction or complete or partial dis appearance is in question, never give rise to cancelation of the insurance but only to its total or partial suspension. Idleness or Suspension of Operations Owing to War. When a risk is insured against stoppage of work, the special premium in respect thereof will be changed according to the rules laid down above for assessing the fire risk premium.' Notwithstanding this generally disturbed condition, the French fire insurance companies have been able to secure on the whole fairly satisfactory results, as reported in L'Argus, and translated by The Economic World as follows: 2 Although not as favorable as those of 1915, the results achieved by the French fixed premium fire insurance companies during the year 1916 proved to be reasonably satisfactory, though allowance must always be made for the unknown quantity of the losses incurred in the invaded districts. Still, of the various branches of insurance it is fire insurance which appears to be getting off the best in the course of the severe ordeals that we are having to endure. It has more than once been said-and with a certain amount of truththat the firebugs were for the most part mobilized with our armies. Let us hope that those of them who return from the front will bring back from their sojourn there less subversive ideas than they entertained before the war. Even in their absence, while the sum-total of the insurance written increased nearly five and a half billion francs from 1915 to 1916, the losses increased almost eight million francs. The following table, which gives the increase or decrease in the amount of insurances written for each of the past seven years, brings out very clearly the effects of the war upon the volume of business done by the French fire insurance companies: · INCREASE (+) OR DECREASE (-) IN THE AMOUNT OF INSURANCES WRitten OVER THE PRECEDING YEAR If we turn to the taxes which thrift, in the form of insurance, has had to bear we find a new increase for the year 1916. The principal companies have paid over to the state in 1916 not less than 28,816,929 francs. For the latter they always constitute the ideal collector, since they collect for it gratuitously these numerous millions. Furthermore, not only is this service of collection gratuitous, but the insurance companies have paid these taxes without taking into account the noncollectible premiums in the invaded territory and those still owed by reason of the moratorium. The Economic World, n. s., vol. xii, No. 4, p. 19, 'L'Argus, translated by The Economic World, n. s., vol. xiv, No. 22, p. 780. In the following table are given the amount of taxes paid by the companies to the state, and the increase or decrease in the taxes so paid from the previous year for each year since 1910: If we analyze the results obtained by the individual companies we find that despite the state of war and the fact that the losses incurred were greater than in 1915, all the companies, with one exception, have had an increased production during 1916. The following table gives the amount of insurances written and the losses paid for each of the principal companies during the past year, with comparative figures for 1915: Summing up the operations of the companies for the past seven years we find that the amount of insurances written, the losses paid and the taxes paid to the state have been as follows: FIRE INSURANCE IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA It has been extremely difficult to secure information as to any kind of insurance from the Central Powers, Germany and Austria on account of the blockade. So far as such information is available, the problems of fire insurance companies seem to be largely the same as those of the fire insurance companies in the other nations at war. There has been a marked depreciation in security values, a tendency for losses to increase, although, as in other nations, the higher level of prices and the consequent increase in value of many forms of property have served in part to counteract some of these negative influences. Reports for 1915 seem to indicate a more favorable result than those for 1914, as indicated in the following statistics.1 Premiums have fallen, but losses have decreased. Net 1914.... 162,403,333 90,125,077 128,482,322 9,026,608 15,996,081 1,620,392 1915.... 155,293,593 71,922,234 136,051,573 19,741,779 16,568,200 6,843,462 The figures of the less important branches are as follows: 45,455,339 33,706,271 3,018,659 5,311,891 1,967,468 495,616 39,046,137 25,355,811 3,566,193 7,045,713 2,248,900 588,751 17,801,572 14,655,594 1,745,411 256,750 394,401 31,288 16,371,495 13,079,550 1,707,533 1914 1915 712,625 408,448 58,287 Glass: 1914 9,142,685 5,395,695 8,112,642 654,470 468,063 18,896 1915 Burglary: 8,733,165 5,210,810 8,048,114 636,200 469,782 14,327 11,583,720 2,613.937 11,210,740 3,915,417 2,833,697 897,008 2,105,273 666,992 75,568 5,500 309,746 ...... 1 1 Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor (London), July 7, 1917. |