NOT A PARTY QUESTION.
With regard to the question of economy in the National Expenditure, it is not, I am afraid, possible to speak of any signs at present of an adequate recognition by the Government of the seriousness of the position. Neverthe- less, and while welcoming all developments in the direc- tion of closer co-operation between Capital and Labour, I do not believe that we shall get very far along the road to general prosperity. until a direct lead has been given by the State with regard to economy in national outlays. It is possible, or it should be possible, to speak all the more clearly and straightly with regard to this urgent need because the failure to economize is one which may be said to characterize all Governments, irrespective of Party, and while it may be that Labour leads the way in the matter of -prodigality in programmes of National Expenditure on social services, the spendthrift propen- sities of the Liberal Government in the years preceding the War, and the extravagances of the Coalition Govern- ment, are also fresh in the memory, while during the past few years of a Conservative Administration we have had a still further expansion in the Exchequer outlays.
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