THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1920. "FLIPPANT FINANCE."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17823, 3 January 1920, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1920. "FLIPPANT FINANCE."

Our cable messages at the time supplied a summary of the more important of the speeches some weeks ago in a debate in the House of Commons on tho question of tho Imperial finances. It was at the end of October that the Chancellor of the Exchequer produced a revised statement of revenue and expenditure for the current year. "VVheu tho Budget was introduced it was estimated that the deficit for the year would be 250 millions. The essential revelation which it fell to Mr Chamberlain to make, after the lapse of seven months, was that expectation must be built upon a probable deficit of 473 millions, or nearly double the Original estimate. Tho revenue was discovered, .on the half-year's figures, to have been over-estimated to the extent of 32 millions, and the expenditure te have been under-estimated to tne' extent of 191 millions. Without going into details, it is of more than passing interest to observe the manner and mood in which the Government found it possible to face the very unpleasant situation thus disclosed and to answer its critics in a "confidence debate," from which it emerged handsomely victorious. It must bo confessed that a surprising feature of the discussion was the light-hearted way in which members of the Government seemingly found it possible to view a financial problem more serious probably than any with which the country lias ever been previously confronted. Tho outstanding speeches in tho debate were those delivered by Mr Chamberlain and Mr Lloyd George. In his peroration the Chancellor observed: "Our burdens are heavy, but our shoulders are broad. There is every occasion for caution, but no excuse for panic. Our position is sound." He expressed confidence that tho resources and spirit which had enabled the nation to bear the burden of the war would carry it successfully through the first difficult and troubled years of peace, and he appealed to the Commons, in realisation of the serious effects upon the trade and industry, of the nation of the enormous financial burden resulting from the war, to promise the Government its hearty sup* port in all reasonable proposals, however drastic, for the reduction of expenditure and the diminution of debt. But any proposals with this object in view were not conspicuously evident in the course of the debate. The Chancellor's speech was certainly cast in a rein that made a, favourable impression on tho House.

It fell to Mr Lloyd George to drive this home. He referred to tho Chancellor's address as one of the most powerful and convincing he had ever heard in the House of Commons, and as practically ending tho debate from the outset, so far as charges of avoidablo extravagance against the Government were concerned. Thero never had been a welladvertised case, ho 'suggested, that had so completely collapsed. The discussion had demonstrated that "tho kind of epileptic scream which had deafened their ears" did not really find an echo in a calm assembly like the House of Commons. The Primo Minister's speech was one of characteristic ability in a light vein, or, as one critic otherwise expressed it, "a mood of splendid irrelevancy." It touched upon this point and upon that, and at every new excursion laughter and cheers were evoked. In concluding, the Primo Minister said: "Let us have economy. Let us also have production. You can only do that by securing a healthy, well-trained, contented people. Do not make the mistake, in terror at the magnitude of our responsibilities, and say, 'Lot us spend. no more; lot us leave tho health of tho people where it was; lot us leave tho comfort whero it was: let us leave the training where it was.' Even in a debate on economy I appeal to this House to show the courage of the great people we have tho honour to represent here, facing our responsibilities all round, paying our tiability, discharging our debts, but, above all, discharging tho debt to the people who wero prepared to sacrifice their lives on tho battlefields of the world for the country we all love." This was no doubt very fine reasoning;.

but it left tho estimated deficit exactly where it was. The speech was a groat success as spoken, but, viewed in cold print, seems, with other utterances made on behalf of the Government .during tho debate, to afford a good deal of justification for criticism •on the score of sheer verbal inflation.

Tho Times expressed itself on tho subject in most scathing terms, thus: "As the. Prime Minister spoke, platitude assumed, by a kind of fugitive magic, tho ' aspect of profound argument,; evasion passed triumphant before tho dimmed eyes of detection; buffoonery donned tho mask of wit; digression, far from the serious issue of the debate, postured as relevance." In short, tho deliberative assembly of the nation allowed itself, it is suggested, to be cajoled by the oratorical wizardry of tho Prime Minister. Certainly, wo can peruse the debate without discovering any convincing answer to the evidence of the gravity of tho financial situation. The Economist, in criticising the Chancellor's statement, observed that, instead of calling upon the nation to face the facts by the self-sacrihee that Is tho only remedy, Mr Chamberlain told it that the situation did not look so bad after all, that he did. not mean to mako any addition to taxation, but would just fly kites to meet the deficit, and that all the fuss about tho financial position was'quite- unnecessary and in rather bad taste. "Of course," it was added, "he hedged his cheerful programme about with many assumptions and conditions which will pass unnoticed by the public, whose attention will naturally bo concentrated on the Chancellor's statement that no more taxes will be needed, and will forget his reservation that this will only he so if a great many things happen that aro most unlikely. And so everyone who can will continue to live riotously, and with the unemployment donation ceasing, and with a fresh doso of inflation owing to the financing of the deficit by Treasury bills, tho temper of the country is likely to bo far from serene in the winter that is upon us. Not only is our economic recovery at stake, but the very existence of our present economic order, based on private property and individual freedom. If our rulers want to wreck this order they are working very cleverly to that end." Tho debate in the Commons was passed under review in two entertaining articles in The Times by a "Student of Politics," from which we are tempted to quote the following extract : — Mr Chamberlain's faults as a .'pcakcr served him in good stead. When' a man looks melancholy and talks cheerfully, ordinary men become almost hilariously light-hearted. It wk a well.-iirranged and artful speech, and it was delivered with tho air of a plain, blunt man. He is no orator like Brutus, a.nd so the Commons abandoned itself unsuspectingly to the arte But, after all, what does the speech boil down to? That, if we overlook a deficit in tho current year of 500 millions, and if we neglect the floating debt of about 1503 millions, and if we forget the now v.orld which wo aro oreating, including the houses for heroee and the scores of schemes that will all cost money, and if tho Government, which is out by nearly 250 millions, is trying to see six months ahead, to tho arrival of the normal year— then, in timeg of profound peace, we may bo able to balance expenditure and income on tho basis of the taxation levied during tho la.st year of the hardest struggle wo have ever known. Some people's consolations are worse than grown-up curses. This may all appear serene—a poor return for the cheery refusal of the Government to pull a long face over the financial position. But the fact remains that a country which is paying out nearly two millions a day more than is coming in, and is faced, with a deficit this year of some hundreds of millions, cannot afford to consider the position otherwise than very seriously.

" Tim woollen and worsted goods trado is still holding its quiet trend," stated American Prices Current last montli.