The -Select Committee on War Wealth on Tuesday heard further
evidence from Sir John Anderson, Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, who had three new schemes to propose. The estimated yield of these levies would vary-from £450,000,000 to £700,000,000—figures that contrast strangely with the early suggestions of a levy to yield perhaps £2,000,000,000 or even more. Sir John Anderson admitted that it would be hardly worth while to throw trade and industry into confusion for the sake of a levy of less than £500,000,000. He implied no doubt that the State would lose far more in annual revenue than it would gain by being relieved of the interest on that amount. He promised to give the Committee a report on the probable effect of a levy on business capital, which is admittedly insuffi- cient for the new needs of the time. Dr. J. C. Stamp, who gave evidence on Wednesday,- told the Committee frankly that "me one could seriously have imagined that-it was really practicable to pick out the 'profiteer."
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