The debates on the service estimates which were continued this
week were again notable for some valuable contributions from the Labour Benches. Particularly effective was Mr. Garro Jones on the subject of profiteering in armaments. He pointed out that during the last War, after all the costing, after all the Income Tax and Super Tax, after all the Excess Profits Duty, the Board of Inland Revenue reported to a select committee of the House of Commons that 360,000 people had enriched themselves by three thousand million pounds—and he drove home the argument that we are still relying on similar methods of checking the cost of manu- facture as we were then. Sir Thomas Inskip denied this, and stated the changes that had been made in the system of controlling the prices, but it cannot be said that the list was an impressive one; a declaration from the Government as to which recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of and Trade in Arms they arc prepared to accept is long overdue.
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