LUCKY NUMBER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 162, 11 July 1930, Page 7

LUCKY NUMBER.

THREE SAVE LABOUR. Narrow Escape of Mac Donald Government. VOTE OP FOUR LIBERALS. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, July 10. The Labour Government was only saved from defeat by three votes in the House of Commons yesterday in the committee stage of the Finance Bill. Dr. E. L. Burgin (Lib., Bedford, Luton) moved an amendment to permit the exemption from income tax of money spent on plant and machinery. This amendment was supported by the Conservatives and was only defeated by 278 votes to 275. The Government was saved by four Liberals voting with it, Thirteen other Liberals abstained from voting, while about 25, headed by Mr. Lloyd George, voted with the Conservatives against the Government. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Philip Snowden, said the proposal contained in the amendment meant a subsidy to every trade and profession. Every new counter put in a bank and every new vat in a brewery would escape taxation at the expense of the taxpayer. It would, cost £30,000,000 a year without reducing the number of unemployed by a single person. The greater part of this gift would go to prosperous industries and leave "Lazarus still begging at the gate." Mr. Lloyd George said he did not desire to defeat the Government. He was of the opinion that the proposed concession Avould cost only £6,000,000 or £7,000,000, but it would accelerate orders and help rationalisation. Mr. Winston Churchill, formerly Conservative Chancellor of the said this Liberal proposal was freer from objection than others. When the division was taken the House was seething with excitement. The result of the vote was announced amid great Ministerial cheering, with a universal gasp of relief and cries of "resign" and counter cheers. Some of the Liberals stated after the division that they had not realised that the Government had been in serious danger or they would have acted differently. There was a suggestion that the division would lead to trouble in the Liberal party. Its effect in Government quarters was to provoke severe criticism of Mr. Lloyd George and the remark that the conspiracy to kill the Government had failed.