THE TAX ON BEER [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—May I mildly quarrel with the suggestion in your leading article that the reduction of the beer tax can be justified on financial grounds ? Mr.. Neville Chamberlain himself argued last year that he could not afford such a reduction. What has happened to enable him to do so this year ? It is, in fact, costing him 114,000,000, a substantial proportion of which will go not to the reduction of the price of beer, but through a subsidy to the barley growers to the Purpose of .making beer stronger.
Is there any justification for the belief that the increase in the consumption of beer in the coming years will swallow up the sacrifice of 214,000,000 of revenue that the Chancellor
[It must be agreed that the question with which Mr. Bernays' letter _ends is hard to ansicer in the affirmative.— En. The Spectator.]
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