BRITAIN'S BURDEN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 12

BRITAIN'S BURDEN

POST-WAR PROBLEMS

COLOSSAL BUDGETS

THE MANDATES

"I want you to sympathise, even a little more than you do at present, with us in tho Old Country in regard to the •struggles wo have bofore us," said Sir Richard Winfrey at tho New Zealand Club luncheon yesterday. "Our postwar problems arc enormous. Britain had mandates thrown upon her as tho result of the Treaty of Versailles, which arc taxing her resources and aie, I am afraid, taxing a great deal of the energies of British statesmen. You will have observed what has taken place recently in Palestine. We had hoped that our American cousins would have taken charge of Palestine and Syria. But they said: 'No; we helped you out of the mess in Europe, and now we arc not going to have anything moro to do with you.' " (Laughter.) He was not sure that America had not been wise in taking up that attitude. But the result was that France had to take the mandate of Syria and Britain that of Palestine. Britain was governing Pulcstino according to the Balfour Note, which had recently caused a good deal of trouble-; and he was afraid she was not out of the wood yet. Since- he had been out of Parliament he had been visiting a number of the outposts of tho Empire, and last year ho had been in Kenya Colony, where lie had como te realiso what a burden the British Empire had on its back. Of course, Britain had that colony before the war; but now she had taken over the whole of German East Africa —Tanganyika, as it was called—and had the mandate for governing that vast area, with millions of tho coloured race upon it. Britain also had Uganda; and in those three huge areas there were as many methods of Government. Kenya was a, colony with an elective Legislative Council and a GovernorGeneral; Tanganyika was a mandated territory, and Uganda a protectorate. Just over tho sea from Uganda, too, was the protectorate of Zanzibar. PROUD OF BRITISH RACE. Nobody who had not visited those territories could realise the sacrifice that British officials were making in thoso tropical countries; and he had come back from Kenya prouder than ever of the British race. Instead of allowing the tribes to war with one another, Britain was teaching them to cultivate the soil. She had doctors all over thoso territories, ministeriug to the natives, and showing them how, by sanitation and so on, they could avoid a great many of the tropical diseases; and all that work had to bo paid for by tho Empire. Then, too, Britain had India, and people were looking forward with great interest and hopo to the report of the Simon Commission. Ho trusted that its recommendations would, when carried out, satisfy the reasonable part, at all events, of the population of that great country. (Applause.) WHEN GLADSTONE SHUDDERED. Dealing with the financial situation at Home, Sir Eichard Winfrey said that Britain had paid back no less than £279,000,000 of her war debts to the United States of America; but Britain had received iv reparations from Germany and in payments of Allied indebtedness to her only a total of £140,000,----000, so that she was £133,000,000 short on tho deal; but tho British people were looking as cheerful as they could about it. (Applause and laughter.) Britain had now an annual Budget of over £.800,000,000; but he could remember' the time when Mr. Gladstone shuddered at the thought of a £100,000,000 Budget. (Laughter.) As a matter of fact, although ho was not at all a rich man, the Government now took half of his I income in taxation. Yet he tried to be as cheerful as he possibly could— (applause)—and he was not quite sure that Mr. Suowden was not going to put some more taxation on him before he got Home. (Laughter.) • Such taxation, however, had the drawback that it made thrift not only difficult but almost not worth while. People thought that they might just as well spend their money as save it up and have it taxed away from them. So they had got a tremendous luxury expenditure going on in the Old Country, which often appalled him.