It will, I think, be admitted by all who have given this matter any serious thought that it is impossible to deal adequately with the subject indicated by the above title, as in the first place the paper would run to an inordinate length, and in the second place the time is not yet when the effect of the war on the operations of insurance companies can be correctly measured. It may be that many years must elapse before things can be seen in their true perspective, and incidentally, I suppose, there will always be a certain difference of opinion as to how far any particular results can be attributed to the war itself, or to what extent they were influenced by other factors.

The methods adopted for collecting and tabulating the annuity experience for the five years 1921-1925 carry out the arrangement that was accepted by the Committee at the time when the permanent investigation was set up. Members of the Committee who were not Members of the Committee when the decision was reached will appreciate that the method adopted is a census method and not a policy year or calendar year method of the type ordinarily used in the past for investigating mortality experience, e.g., such as was used in the OM experience (see however Appendix).