23 MAY 1931, Page 2

Mr. Chamberlain opened the attack vigorously, exposing the anomalies of

the Bill and the inconsistencies between the effects threatened and those at which such legislation. as the • Town and Country Planning Bill aimed. .He accused the Government of dishonestly seeking under a finance Bill political objects which they would not frankly disclose. The President of the Board of Trade took up the defence, but hakto make excuses for not attempting to improve the economic position by pleading that the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance and the Economy Committee had not yet reported. Then came the chief interest of the day, Sir John Simon's speech. He spoke of the radical differences between the present Bill and that of Mr. Lloyd George in 1909, and roused great laughter and cheering by his references to the Liberal leader's position to-day. Though the Solicitor-General claimed that the differences between the Bills showed how the Government had profited by experience, Sir John's condemnation of the Bill was unanswerable.