BRITISH STRENGTH

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 182, 1 May 1931, Page 9

BRITISH STRENGTH

Finances Good Despite Present Conditions PRAISE FOR BUDGET (Rec. April 30, 5.5 p.m.). Official Wireless. Rugby, April 29. In the House of Commons the Bud get debate was resumed. Sir Herbert Samuel (Liberal) said the chief point which struck him was the enormous strength of the financial position of the nation. In a time of extreme trade depression with a substantial portion of workers unemployed Britain was able to meet all her just liabilities. ,■ He rejoiced that in the Budget the Chancellor was able to exhibit the vast financial resources of the country under free trade, and he challenged the advocates of a tariff to point to a protectionist country which had achieved so much. He welcomed the proposal for the taxation of land values. Earlier in the debate, according'.to a cable message, Mr. Winston Churchill said that it was difficult to take a highly controversial view of the Budget, seeing that Mr. Snowden had adopted a whole series of expedients which he himself had devised and practised. “The Budget is really memorable," he said, “because a Labour Chancellor, despite party pressure and in the teeth of the doctrines of a lifetime, has declared by his action that under the present circumstances the limits of direct taxation have been reached.”

He agreed with Mr. Chamberlain that a tariff based on the need of revenue must become the means of striking new bargains w|ith foreign countries, which, wisely handled, might play an important part in welding together the production and consumption of the Empire before the present process of dispersal and disintegration reached its final stage.