16 MAY 1925, Page 2

We agree that the tax on artificial silk is a

very inopportune tax on a raw material. Tariff reformers and Free Traders, though they disagreed about everything else, always agreed that raw materials, so far as they could be defined, must be left untaxed. Mr. Churchill, though he stood by his taxes in principle, was fairly conciliatory and announced his readiness to introduce modifications. It had naturally been impossible to make inquiries from the industry before the tax had been announced, but now that he was free from that restraint he would collect all the necessary information. The fact that artificial silk was in such common use really pleased him, as it meant that the burden of the tax would be very broadly distributed.

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