* During the past six years the diminution of the
National Debt charge had been £75,000,000 a year. FOrtunately all the thrift agencies had prospered in the last financial year. The receipts for the sale of Savings Certificates, for example, were £35,500,000, the increase being double that of the previous year. This is a really encouraging fact. Many of us have feared that the vast amount of Public Assistance would have a demoralising effect upon the traditional thriftiness of the nation, but though the danger visibly remains it is reassuring to know that independence and the old power of self-help are emerging handsomely from the trial. As for the return to the Gold Standard, Mr. Churchill pointed out, as he was thoroughly entitled to do, that the forebodings had already been falsified. The cost of living had declined seven points. We stood at last on a " basis of reality " and our prices were in favourable relation to those of the United States.
