On Tuesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a full
statement on the financial situation, the upshot of which was that though the finances of the country had been thrown into confusion for four months, though there bad been depression, and though more than £3,000,000 had been paid in the reduction of Debt out of the revenue of the year, the Treasury was left with a balance of £2,900,000. As we have pointed out elsewhere, this figure is only reached by raiding the Sinking Fund of some £2,700,000 in addition to the money proposed to be abstracted last autumn. In reality, therefore, the surplus is under half-a-million. We agree, however, with Mr. Lloyd George in saying that probably no other country could have achieved the same result in similar circumstances. The general coincidence of the results with Mr. Lloyd George's original estimates is remarkable, but this happy issue owes a good deal to luck, as some items amount to much less than was estimated, and some to- much more. The unexpected profits and losses roughly balance one another.
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