PURPOSE OF WAR CABINET

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 9, 5 October 1940, Page 13

PURPOSE OF WAR CABINET

Mr. Hamilton’s View SPIRIT OF THE AGREEMENT

'‘When the War Cabinet ceases to justify the purpose for which it was set up, I want to say that it will cease to exist,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton, a member of the War Cabinet, during the discussion on war finance. Mr. Hamilton added that when the spirit of the agreement entered into to form the War Cabinet ceased to exist there would be no more War Cabinet, but that had not happened yet.

“It has been said that the proitosals for raising the compulsory war loan should have come before the War Cabinet,” Mr. Hamilton said. “So far as the regulations governing the loan are concerned that criticism js justified, but the argument that the terms of the loan should have been considered by the War Cabinet cannot be substantiated. Those proposals were first outlined in the Budget as the Government’s declared policy, and that could not very well be altered by the War Cabinet. The responsibility for the loan must rest solely on the Government.”

Tlie loan regulations might very well have been embodied in a Bill to come before Parliament, Mr. Hamilton added, because there was not much use in the House meeting every month or so if important proposals of that kind were not Io come up for discussion. If the .Minister of Finance, .Mr. Nash, had listened to the current discussion <>f the loan proposal before the regulations were framed, for instance, be would very likely have taken some notice of it. Unjust and Unwise.

Mr. Hamilton contended that the loan in the form it had been issued was both unjust and unwise, as it would make a heavy drain on money that was engaged in production. It was not a tax on wealth, but on the economic life-blood of industry, and the Government would have been better advised to draw on the £30.000,0(10 or £-10,000,000 lying in the banks earning no interest.

“In his speech, the Minister. of Supply, .Mr. Sullivan, said that the balance ot t.bc loan not required for war purposes would be devoted to civil expenditure,” Mr. Hamilton went on. “That will be disturbing to the public. . . Mr. Nash: There is something wrong there. Every bit of this money will be used for Ihe war. .Mr. Hamilton : Well, will it be used to pay some of the overseas expenditure? .Mr. Nash: Yes, that i.s so. “People will stand a 10l if they feel It is just and necessary,” Mr. Hamilton concluded, “but if they are labouring under a sense of injustice they cannot be a contented community.”