" Pressure " on the Chancellor The Chancellor has turned
a deaf ear to the pleas of the motor trade, and the horse-power tax is to remain at the horrific level of 25s. It seems a pity, in view of the recog- nised handicap imposed by the British system of motor taxation on the manufacturer for export ; but Sir John Simon's hardness of heart is from another point of view reassuring. The power of " pressure groups " to get legis- lation—and particularly financial legislation—altered in order to suit their private interests is scarcely a desirable political phenomenon, and the success of the cinema interests in achieving the withdrawal of the film tax was calculated to encourage every sectional interest to try its hand in the future. The case for withdrawal was, of course, immensely strong in this particular instance ; it seems almost inconceivable that the implications of the tax, with its strangling effect on the newsreels which might play so important a part in presenting Britain to the world, had been realised in advance. Possibly one effect of the Budget leakage which proved so disastrous to Mr. J. H. Thpmas has been to make Chancellors more wary of casting light on their intentions by preliminary sounding of expert opinion.
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