The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: A somewhat
frosty reception was accorded to the new Armaments Profits Duty. Mr. Pethick Lawrence commanded widespread assent when he said that this was a political and not a revenue tax. Indeed nobody imagines that it would ever have seen the light of day but for the introduction of con- scription. Mr. Ernest Evans confessed that he always had a feeling that the effectiveness of a new tax was to be found in the protests that it inspired, and he was not alone in remarking the fact that this particular duty had not caused the slightest ripple upon the surface of the City. But undoubtedly the speech of the day came from Mr. Austin Hopkinson, who administered impartial castigation to Government and Official Opposition alike. In his view the whole of the Labour Party was devoted to the defence and protection of the small profiteer and very nearly the whole of the Conservative Party to the defence and protection of the large profiteer, and between the two the Government could go on producing eyewash like this with perfect safety.
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