It was very refreshing after the dreary Budget debates in
the last Parliament, when the Opposition did not have one single speaker with previous experience of the. Treasury, to hear in Mr. Pethick-Lawrence, who led the Labour attack, a man who could speak with under- standing and authority on financial questions. His speech was all the more effective because it was so restrained. He concentrated on the enormous increase in expenditure on armaments, and while insisting that. the Labour Party fully appreciated the requirements of defence, made out a good debating case for his strenuous contention that by their failure in the last Parliament to seize the opportunities presented the Government had materially contributed to the rearmament race. Sir Archibald Sinclair followed in the same vein, but his arguments would have been more incisive if he had given greater evidence that he realised the gravity of the international situation that has now arisen. He twitted Mr. Chamberlain with his past speeches on the urgency of economy, and quoted his statement when introducing , the Budget last year that greater provision in future would have to be made for the repayment of debt. But these utterances were made at a time when none could have foreseen the rearmament of Germany in all its menacing proportions. As Mr. Chamberlain continually affirmed in his speech, `.` these are not normal times." They certainly are not,
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