A MAKESHIFT BUDGET.
Mr. Snowden's Budget of a few months ago was in every sense of the word a mere makeshift Budget, for he met a prospective ,Deficit - of about £37,000,000 by merely imposing about £8,000,000 taxation on Oil and obtaining the rest of his revenues by taking £20,000,000 from the Exchange Reserve Account and a further £10,000,000 by anticipating that amount of the revenue for the year following through his plan. for collecting in January three-fourths instead of one-half of Income Tax due in 1932. Even in last May there was a clear prob- ability of the situation demanding a revised Budget later_ in _the year, thoug_h, so far from recognizing that probability, Mr. Snowden said towaidi the close of his Budget speech :
" If we can effect substantial economies during the year and if there is some improvement in trade, I do not think. next year's Budget will be unduly alarming, but, failing this, a heavy increase in taxation will be inevitable, which I have this year happily been able to avert."
The expected has happened. The trade slump has become even more pronounced, with the result that tax revenue for the first half of the year has fallen completely below the Chancellor's expectations, while the reflection of these conditions upon the Sterling Exchange has been emphasized :by circumstances wholly beyond the control of Mr. Snowden or anyone else in this country, those circumstances including the crisis in Germany with its reflections upon all other centres and in particular upon the London Money Market.
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