BRITAIN'S FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 189, 11 August 1919, Page 5

BRITAIN'S FINANCE.

A PESSIMISTIC OUTLOOK. CURB ON EXPENDITURE. NEW TAXATION LIKELY. LONDON, August S (delayed l. J Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Chancellor |of the Exchequer, in the House of Com- | mans, delivered a pessimistic review of the financial situation. To continue spending at the present rate, lie said, would lead straight to' national bankruptcy. It was essential to increase production and reduce expenditure. The Budget forecast would fail to realise expectations. New blocks of expenditure sanctioned for pensions alone amounted to half the pre-war expenditure. The impossibility of discontinuing food control had bad a serious effect upon the Budget as it had been hoped to realise £70,000.000 by the sale of stocks held by the government. He doubted whether it would be possible t > | balance accounts without new taxation. | The only way to deal with foreign e.\- ---; changes was to reduce the imnort of ! luxuries and increase experts. The Government was determined that reckless ! waste should stop. There was nothing lin the present position which was be- | yond the nation's power to overcome if it tackled the problem with the sumo i resolution that it had displayed during the war. British imports for July show an increase of £44.00U.7!>4, exports an increase of £21.ti71,024, and re-exports an increase of £9,735,077. compared with the figures j for July, 1918. I In order to revive the British coastwise .hipping and al-o to relieve the railway congestion a conference between the Government and representatives of the various interests concerned agreed to utilise shipping for traffic which before the war was online rilv seaborne. The Government will repay shippers the difference in freights until the rail rates are raised to the level of sea freights.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) I