BUDGET DEBATE

Evening Star, Issue 19533, 14 April 1927, Page 6

BUDGET DEBATE

MR LLOYD GEORGE'S ATTACK “ MR DEFICIT " Prew Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, April 13, (Received April 14, at 11.30 a.m.) Resuming the Budget debate in the House of Commons, Sir Robert Horne (Con.) said Labor was disappointed because it had not found a miserable Chancellor in a whit© sheet. He sympathised with; Labor and congratulated Mr Churchill on his series of clever contrivances by means of which ho had succeeded in climbing the precipice. At the same time a burden of £.874,000,000 was an impossible one for the country to boar, and no one could look to the future with any hope if that figure were to become the normal expenditure. Mr Lloyd George said he was disappointed with Sir Robert Horne’s speech. Mr Churchill stood in danger of going down in history as “Mr Deficit.” There was no apparent provision to meet the expenditure in connection with China. It was a great mistake not to Budget in anticipation, as the troops would remain in China for some time. The new taxes were feeble, miserable, and annoying. £30,000,000 had been described as being made up of windfalls, hut they wore tree shakings, not windfalls. There were one or two apples not ripe. Anyhow they had not come out of Mr Churchill’s orchard. Mr Churchill apparently believed with Robert Louis Stevenson that it was better to travel hopefully than to arrive. He had aimed at economy, but the sturdy figure of the First Lord of the Admiralty stood in front of the target, causing him tb miss bis mm. The abolition of tho three departments was a first-class mistake. Real economy lay in the direction of armaments. A Minister was sent to Geneva to ask others to reduce armaments while Britain was increasing its Navy. Britain was accused of hypocrisy, and there was a certain element of truth in that charge. Britain was confronting the nations which were without Britain's burdens; hence the Budget was misleading, irrelevant, and unhelpful.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE. LONDON, April 13. On the Stock Exchange tho Budget proposals, especially the increase in tho Sinking Funds, are reflected in a general advance of prices, especially in giltedged stocks, and also in home rails and industrial shares.