WONDERFUL BRITAIN

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4012, 11 June 1920, Page 2

WONDERFUL BRITAIN

SUCCESS LN FINANCE. AN EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY .By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Came -Looociatioii.,; i-OiiUon, June e>. lv tho House ot Commons, Mr Chamberlain explained the Government's decision not to impose a levy on war wealth, etc pointed out that as payment could be made m Government, securities, the levy would not materially reduce the flotation ol debt. iie emphasised the tears oi business men, as regards tlie oil cot 01 the levy, and stated that the excess profits duty would produce twice as much as the levy, in the same period, iie now proposed to maintain the Excess Profits Duty at 60 per cent this year, and continue the duty or its equivalent for a -longer period than) otnerwise had been necessary. Mr Chamberlain paid a warm tribute to ! tlie manner iv which' the rich had borne financial sacrifices, and gave figures showing that in some cases only about 5s in the £ was left to the recipients of large incomes, after their wages had been paid. No other country had attempted a financial effort comparable'with Britain's, and there was no other in which the well-to-do people were so heavily taxed. Illustrating the financial recovery of Britain, Mr Chamberlain referred to the rise in the dollar exchange, and stated that we were in a position to buy our half of the Anglo-French loan iv America, and to meet all other market obligations of the Treasury in the United States, to the end of 1920, with a satisfactory margin. Our debt of a hundred million dollars to Argentina would be redeemed in a few days, and the loan of twenty million yen in Japan would be paid off in a month, while provision had been made at home for reduction of debt by £230,000,000 this year, and £300,000,----000 next year, without additional taxation. INCREASE IN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. (Router's Telegram.l London, June 8. The exports during May totalled £119,310,000, compared with £64,344,----000 in May, 1919, and the. imports were £166,333,000 compared with £135,612,000. The chief increases m exports were:-eManufactured goods: Cotton, £20,187,000; woollens, £5,079,000; iron and steel, £6,574,----000. The exports for the first five months of the year totalled £521,114,----000, compared' with £270,293,000 in 1919, and the imports totalled £863,----201,000, compared with £594,094,000. Re-exports of foreign and colonial merchandise amounted to £115,767,000 — an increase of £72,296,000. compared with the same period in 1919.