DRAMATIC SPEECH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20283, 18 April 1934, Page 7

DRAMATIC SPEECH.

“ Bleak House ” to “ Great Expectations.”

(Received April 18. 1.45 p.m.) LONDON. April 17. " We have finished the story of Bleak House and are sitting down to enjoy the first chapter of Great Expectations,” was Mr Chamberlain’s Dickensian preface to his Budget speech. He then proceeded tantalisingly to raise hopes only to defer them, but of course his eve was on the clock. Nothing must be allowed out before the doors were shut at the Stock Exchange. When it did come, there was such a sustained surge of “ Hear, Hears,” that obviously he had done something that pleased all parties. The announcement of the full restoration of unemployed benefits, coupled with the restoration of half the service pay cuts, set the Ministerial benches cheering. It was a telling reply to Socialist clamour that the burden of the country’s travail had fallen on those least able to bear it. There were some “Hear, Hears” from the Opposition benches, but generally there was a grim suggestion that they realised that a good trump card had gone west. (Mr Neville Chamberlain's statement

appears on page 1.)