King Country Chronicle. Thursday, April 5, 1934. BRITAIN MUDDLES THROUGH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4527, 5 April 1934, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Thursday, April 5, 1934. BRITAIN MUDDLES THROUGH.

Nine months ago a statement was made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that Britain might be in a position to deal with a small deficit in her national budget. A few months later it was stated that the outlook

was improving and there might be a small surplus. A month ago a further announcement was made that this surplus might run into millions. Now it is officially stated that the surplus will be £31,000,000. These successive statements go to prove the

care that is taken not to buoy the people up with false hopes. Britain has had tremendous handicaps to deal with since the close of the war — more perhaps than any other country but now her financial position is better than any. It was only a few years ago when it was the generally accepted opinion that Britain was on the decline, and she seemed rather to agree to such a judgment. This impression was accentuated by Britain's candid habit of broadcasting her figures of unemployment and exposing all the skeletons in her cupboard. The people were carrying on their backs a debt of more than

£8,000,000,000 and supporting 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 unemployed, besides financing expensive social services comprising- old age pensions, widows' pensions, and accident insurance. The general impression gained was that the country was living on its capital and heading to ultimate bankruptcy. Yet Britain has wea-

thered the storm, and presented a financial statement that must be the envy of the rest of the world. The general standard of living has been raised during the last ten years, and is now much higher than in any of the European countries. Taxation has been severe on the well-to-do classes, the very rich paying as much as lis to every 20s in income tax and super tax and a third to a half of their possessions in death duties, but this has led to a more equitable distribution of wealth. These rich people have been compelled to cut down their expenditure, but they are still comparatively well off, and their outlook is very much better than many of their contemporaries in other countries who have lost all

their former possessions. There are many cases of hardship, these beine

elderly professional and business men who had saved what they supposed to be sufficient to keep them in old age, and now between taxation and failing- investments find themselves in straitened circumstances. Others are widows and spinsters who drew their incomes from trustee investments. These have- been badly hit by the war loan conversion from 5 to 3i per cent. The sacrifices de-

manded of these people and the very rich have on the whole been to their advantage. They have an enormous interest in maintaining the credit of the country, for it was a choice between sacrificing a considerable portion of their income in taxation or seeing- their present capital disappear in a debacle of credit and currency. It can be claimed for these people that they had the good sense to

choose the lesser evil without grumbling. The British people have every reaons for believing that they are now on the up-grade. Revenue is coming

in at a greater rate, most trades report improvement, the unemployment figures are declining, and exports seem to be gradually improving. The fact that there has been

no industrial unrest of a serious nature would prove that the people as a whole are more contented or fully realise that they must share the responsibilities of the State in a world crisis. The British habit is to judge by results, and the policy of caution and facing hard facts has brought some measure of prosperity to the country. Other countries fail to understand Britain's methods of "muddling through," but she has shown them the way to stability. All the handicaps that Britain has been called upon to face have not been overcome. She has still to recover a large portion of her overseas trade; she cannot escape her responsibilities which the situation in Central Europe has brought about; and the war debts problem has not yet been solved. Up to the present Britain has adhered to the safer though more difficult road to stability, and the results of this are now being realised.