ECONOMY AND WAR TAXES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 103, 4 May 1942, Page 4

ECONOMY AND WAR TAXES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I think that almost everyone who heard Mr. Fraser's proposals for finding the money for war expenses must have been impressed by the very able manner in which the proposals were put before the House and the people. My reason for writing this is that I myself came to a conclusion which, on a second thought, I realised was completely wrong; yet I am afraid that very many will have done the same if they also have not given another thought to it. When it was suggested by the Prime Minister that heavy taxes were to be imposed on certain articles of more or less luxury my first reaction was: "Well, I can cut down my buying of so much of this and so much of that." This may seem to be a natural thing for men to do, but I say definitely that such a policy would be unpatriotic in the extreme; it would, in effect, be equivalent to saying: "I quite agree with the Prime Minister that, to equip the men who are willing to risk their lives in defending us, a certain amount of the money must be found by means of taxation, but I'm going to dodge it if I can"! I think there may be many thousands of men and women who, looking at the matter in this light, will decide to pay the bit of extra taxation In so good a cause, and, as economy will be forced upon nearly all of us, let us by all means practise that economy only in the purchase of goods which are not made subject to the war tax. The estimate pf war expenses quoted by Mr. Fraser sets the country a task which has never before been faced by this Dominion; let us try not to make it any harder!—l am, etc.,

THOUGHTFUL,