The Revenue Bill reached a critical stage on Monday. The
Land Values Group, dismayed by the announcement that Mr. Lloyd George was going to drop Clause XI. as a concession to Mr. Pretyman, demanded an explanation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer pointed out that there was no time for a Parlia- mentary struggle over the Bill, and he understood that if Clause XI. were dropped the Opposition would not regard the remainder of the Bill as contentious. As the bulk of the Bill was approved by all sections, he proposed a twenty-four hours' truce for everybody to think about it, in the hope that reason would prevail. Mr. Pretyman, who followed, suggested that as Clause XI. raised the whole vexed question of valuation, and would take two or three days of acute discussion, it should be postponed till the next session's Bill. Meanwhile let the remainder of the Bill be passed in order to remove the injustice from which every builder and small owner was suffering. The Land Values Group, having proved irrecon-
cilable. were severely criticized, not merely by Mr. Austen Chamberlain, but by Mr. Chiozza Money and Sir Frederick Cawley on the Ministerial side, and after some heated recrimination the twenty-four hours' truce was agreed to. Shortly after midnight on Tuesday Mr. Lloyd George announced that as the negotiations had broken down the Bill would be withdrawn, but would be reintroduced early next session in substantially the same form.
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