On Monday a debate equally good in patches took place
on a Labour amendment to the Finance Bill. Mr. George Hall suavely suggested that if the special duties on Irish goods were abolished, peace with the Irish Free State would follow. Mr. Chamberlain handled the answer in place of Mr. Thomas, and did it very much better. His point was that the duties effectively compensated the British taxpayer for two-thirds of the Irish default ; that the Irish default was due to politics and not to penury ; and that condonation of it would not shake Mr. de Valera's dreams of a Republic. This speech was particularly valuable in disposing of the facile argument that a nation which had suspended payment of war debts to the United States had no moral right to insist upon being paid any other kind of debt. The same day also witnessed an assault upon the fuel oil duty, and the case against taking industrial fuel was ably put by Sir Robert Hamilton. Mr. Chamberlain, who has been getting more than the anticipated revenue from the tax, was unmoved by anything except a plea to exempt aviation petrol. He made the curious answer that those who wanted this exemption in the interests of national defence had better persuade the Air Ministry to back their desire in the Cabinet.
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