The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The
House whistled audibly when the Chancellor of the Exchequer came to the words "four hundred millions" in his announcement of Thursday of last week. But within a day or two familiarity had bred contempt, and it needed Sir Archibald Sinclair's comparisons with war-time expenditure in 1914-18 to convey to the House a full sense of the magnitude of the task before us. Government confidence in the Chancellor, however, is unshaken. He scored freely off the Socialists by his reminiscences of the borrowing for the unemployment fund, and claimed credit with justification for the policy of his Government which had made it possible to announce so large a loan without ruffling the confidence of the city. He challenged the opposition to name any item of expenditure which they themselves would omit if they had the responsi- bility of government, and he rightly expects to find himself in the happy position to confound those who criticise his extravagance out of the mouths of those who think he had not spent enough.
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