Mr. Chamberlain has made one rather important concession in response
to a joint Socialist and Unionist demand. He will instruct County Councils to invite comment on their schemes from all lesser authorities within their areas before they can receive sanction from the Ministry. We understand that this proviso is to have a mandatory force, whereas the pooling of all institutional work is no more than strongly recom- mended. The finance of the Bill is, of course, a separate chapter. Here, too, progress has been made and the Money Resolutions for both England and Scotland passed through the Report stage during the week. The argument against the grants from the Exchequer to the local authorities being a fixed sum subject only to quinquennial revision is intelligible enough, for it may mean that local authorities will, in fact, be penalized by the indus- trial expansion of their district during the five years. But there is nothing particularly alarming in this, and surely anything is better than the present chaos. On Wednesday Mr. Clumberlain conceded shorter periods of three and then four years to begin with. We notice that the Finance Committee of the London County Council has pronounced in favour of the Bill. Mr. Chamberlain's success has been indeed remarkable.
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