The Daily Chronicle of Monday publishes an interesting interview with
Sir Edward Hamilton, who has just retired from the Treasury after a long and distinguished career. We can only note here Sir Edward Hamilton's unhesitating condemnation of old-age pensions as incompatible with national economy. Mr. Asquith's " commitment " might be small at the moment, but, once begun, the drain would inevitably increase. Since the issue of the Report of the Committee connected with his (Sir Edward Hamilton's) name he had thought the matter over very carefully, and had come to the conclusion that it was impossible to discriminate between incomes of over and under ten shillings a week as that Committee suggested. Even if some saving was effected on the Poor Law and on general national well-being, he feared that everything saved would go to the old-age fund, and that all reduction of taxation would cease. The only way to restore national credit to the point it held, before the Boer War was to go on steadily with the policy of paying off Debt and adding to the Sinking Fund.
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