The Budget debates have gone, on the whole, more kindly
to the Government than seemed likely a week ago when the reaction against Mr. Churchill first declared itself. On Thursday, May 7th, he defended the McKenna duties. He argued that they involved " no great fiscal issue." The Prime Minister had pledged himself against a general tariff and, of course, that pledge would be honoured. It did not, however, exclude revenue duties, and that was all the McKenna duties were. He had no doubt himself that the repeal of the duties by the Labour Government had checked employment. In the watch and clock trade imports of finished articles had gone up four times whereas the import of parts had declined. Mr. Snowden who resented a charge by Mr. Churchill that he had been moved by politicial opportunism in repealing the duties defended himself with much animation. Repeal had actually caused thousands of additional hands to be employed in the motor industry and the exports of cars had doubled. The reason was that repeal had woken up a slumbering trade. The reimposed duties would act as a narcotic and put it to sleep again. After listening to much criticism of the reduction in the Income Tax Mr. Churchill briefly pointed out that under his Budget direct taxation accounted for 65.9 of the total taxation. In his opinion that was quite a fair proportion.
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