There are three ways of doing the thing, and doing
it promptly. In the first place, the Government might go into the insurance business, as they did in the case of marine insurance, and insure for, say, eighty per cent. of the loos, leaving twenty per cent. to be insured by the individual. That is a perfectly feasible scheme, and could be announced at once. A second plan is to make a small war addition to the Inhabited House Duty, and lay upon all business premises a special tax according to their rateable value, these new taxes to be earmarked for insurance purposes. A third plan would be for the Government simply to announce that they would endorse every policy of fire insurance with a war clause, making the loss fall upon the State if it were due to the King's enemies. People who had not taken the trouble to insure their premises and goods against ordinary fire risks would of course get nothing. Those who had insured inade- quately would only get the inadequate insurance. Those, on the other hand, who had had the good sense to insure properly against ordinary fire risks would be paid whether the fire were due to ordinary causes or, again, to the action of the King's enemies.
