12 FEBRUARY 1921, Page 2

Mr. Chamberlain contradicted the rumour that the Govern- ment meant

to bring in a " popular " Budget and then appeal to the country. A popular Budget, with a debt of £8,000,000,000, was impossible. He suggested that the Budget must amount to £950,000,000, without allowing anything for redemption of debt. " To carry out pre-wax services on a pre-war scale would require £500;000,000," as the cost now was two and a-half times as much as it was then. Interest on the Debt amounted to £320,000,000 ; pensions to the wounded and to widows came to £123,000,000. To reduce the debt and to make good the immense waste of capital in the war would be the work of a generation. We must refrain, said the Chancellor, from trying to carry out polioies which, though desirable in themselves, we could not now afford.