The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Austen
-Chamberlain, in the course of an address on Monday to his constituents dealt with the fiscal question. He expressed his entire and complete sympathy with the Prime Minister's programme, though he felt with Mr. Balfour that it did not
cover the whole field of, fiscal reform," and that "there was a greater, a still more important question rising above the horizon, with which as yet the Government were unable to deal." The really important point of his speech was his reference to the class who should first benefit by any relief in taxation. Mr. Ritchie recently declared that the eight millions placed on tea and sugar for war purposes ought to come off, when the time came, without any new taxation on bread and meat. Mr. Austen Chamberlain declared that these taxes were not imposed " solely for the purposes of the war," and intimated that " when the time came, if come it did, when taxation had to be taken off," it would be the Income- tax payers who would deserve "some consideration."
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