31 OCTOBER 1931, Page 24

AN UPHILL TASK.

I think not, and for the following sufficiently good reason. We have it on the confession of ex-Socialist Ministers themselves that last August the country was in a situation bordering upon insolvency. Some allow- ance must, of course, be made for the language used during an election period, but we know, at all events, that the country was confronted with a prospective Budget deficit of £170,000,000, and that a correction of this position was made too late to prevent our being Pushed off the gold standard, while the Budget itself Was only balanced by adding still further to the heavy burden upon the direct taxpayer. While, therefore, it is easy to conceive that having reached this stage a continuance of the Socialist Administration would have (Continued on page 582.)

Finance—Public and Private

(Continued from page 580 ) brought about final collapse pretty rapidly, the advanced stage of distress makes the progress towards recovery necessarily much slower.