CRITICAL

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 157, 13 June 1931, Page 6

CRITICAL

SITUATION IN COMMONS LIBERALS AND LABOUR AMENDMENT TO BE PRESSED LONDON, June 12. The situation that will arise next week in the House of Commons when the Liberal amendment to the land tax proposals in the Government's Finance Bill will be discussed was described by Mr. Lloyd George in a speech at Edinburgh to-day as critical. The Liberals propose that the tax should fall exclusively on undeveloped land by conceding to owners the right to deduct from the land tax the amount paid on the same land as income tax. Newspapers state that the Government will resist the amendment, which the chief Liberal Whip declares will be pressed. Mr. Lloyd George said they were taking this attitude not to create embarrassment for the Government but because they demanded fair treatment for the owners of land. Despite Mr. Lloyd George's challenge, which is featured in the newspapers, there are suggestions in several quarters that there will be in many conferences during the weekend in an attempt to And a way out of the deadlock. Commentators agree that neither the Liberal Party nor the Government desires an early election upon a question of taxation which does not operate until UKS2. A meeting of Liberal members of the House of Commons spent several hours on Thursday discussing possible modifications of the amendment, but the final wording is not being adopted until a full party meeting on Monday. Both Liberal and Labour newspapers 'direct attention to Mr. Lloyd George's declaration in an article in a Scottish Labour paper this week: "An election now might mean another five years of Tory rule, with reaction reigning at home and abroad, which would be a calamity." The Daily Herald (Labour) in an editorial says the Government cannot and will not accept the amendment, which would reduce the expected land tax revenue oil £5,00(1,000 by more than half and nullify all the provisions for the valuation of improved, bmlt-on land aiming at the future rating of land values. The. Daily Herald suggests that the Liberals will not dare to force an election in which they would enter the campaign with the odium of having destroyed the land tax.