In the House of Commons on Thursday week Mr. Chamberlain
gave strong and valuable support to the Finance Bill. No other country, he said, was meeting so large a proportion of war expendi- ture by taxation. It was now evident that we could bear the great strain as long as might be necessary to win the war. While we were raising £300,000,000 by additional taxation, Germany was raising only £25,000,000. As for our future fiscal policy, it would be in vain to look to the pages of Hansard for enlightenment. Agreement would be possible among schools of thought which had widely differed in the past, but who were reaching common ground by various routes. Apart from Mr. Chamberlain's most sensible speech, the debate was interesting for Mr. McKenna's emphatic refusal to reconsider the proposal to introduce premium bonds. The working classes were already investing as much as could be expected of them, and in any case the Government declined to encourage the gambling spirit. Dealing with other points, Mr. McKenna admitted that the Excess Profits Tax could not be further increased. He intended to introduce modifications of the new Income Tax in Committee so as to adjust the proportion between earned and unearned incomes.
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