Economy at Westminster
The economy movement in the House of Commons is broad-based, and under wise direction it should have good results. The new Government in Germany has early made the discovery that a Budget balance can only be achieved by. reducing expenditure, not by increasing taxation, which has become almost insup- portable already; The same is broadly true here, and a 10 per cent. cut in services which at present consume £470,000,000 is no bad goal to aim at. For blind economy there is nothing to be said, but proposals based on an intelligent study of various fields of expenditure by private members' sub-committees may well prove a valuable support to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his eternal conflict with the spending Departments. Revenue returns are well behind last year's figures, and' though Mr. Chamberlain budgeted for a fall of £87,000,000 in income tax and surtax the actual shortage may quite well be greater than that. For economy that is
stern but not short-sighted there is always room. * * * *
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