Mr. Chamberlain found the House grateful for small mercies on
Tuesday when members of all parties united -to urge him not to charge the Unemployment Insurance 'Fund with -repayment of the whole of its debt and were 'placated by a trivial concession. The appeal owed much of its force to the emergence from Parliamentary retirement of Sir Robert Horne, but there were two other first-class speeches in his support from Mr. Graham White and Mr. James Reid—two of the few members who have shown consistently that they know something about Unemployment Insurance. Mr. Chamberlain was *saved from greater persistence by the prestige of his Budget and still' more by the fact that private members cannot move' ainendments which would increase taxation. It remains a Mystery why he did not use his 1938-84 surplus to reduce this debt—unless it was that reiterated -advice tO do so struck a streak of obstinacy which is never 'very far from the surface -of his character.
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