The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1936. Financial Policy

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21707, 14 February 1936, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1936. Financial Policy

A special message to “The Press” -yesterday reported a statement in which the Prime Minister forecast an exceedingly busy and interesting session. It can hardly be anything else, with half-a-dozen bills of major importance to be brought down, “implementing . . * the “main principles of the Labour party’s preelection programme ”; and one of the earliest of these bills, Mr Savage indicated, would embody Labour’s monetary policy. “No detailed “statement” about this, he said, would be made before the bill came down, but he added that this did not mean that a pre-sessional statement on national finance and general principles of policy would not be made. Such a statement is very much to be desired, and it is a pity that Mr Savage did not definitely promise it. The nature of Labour’s financial proposals, upon which, of course, much else in its programme depends, has always been obscure, and remains so. But members of the Cabinet have been busy in the country, engaging the Government to a great many expensive projects, some of which, but only some, are covered by Mir Semple’s statement a few days ago that he hoped to have 26,000 men on public works within six months or sooner. As we said then, a rough calculation shows that this means expenditure on public works alone at the rate of at least £20,000,000 a year, possibly £25,000,000, or even more. The country cannot bear of commitments on this scale without wondering anxiously where and how the money is to be found; and this anxiety the Government ought not to ignore. Mr Savage quite rightly refuses a “detailed statement” of the provisions of the finance bill; there is no need for one. But if the Minister for Finance or he himself is not yet in a position to explain in general terms what is to be done, it is hard to understand why; and if they can explain but will not, it is still harder to understand why. Silence on the subject is mischievous; and the Prime Minister will do well to turn his suggestion that a statement is possible into the promise of an early one. ~"