WAR WEALTH

Wairarapa Age, 19 March 1920, Page 5

WAR WEALTH

PROPOSED CAPITAL LEVY. CONDEMNED BY BRITISH BANKERS. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian-N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, March 16., The opposition of bankers to a capital levy on war wealth was voiced before a House of Commons Committee on 24th February. Mr R. M. Martin, Chairman of the British Bankers' Association, said he considered a tax on war profits was undoubtedly just, but a tax on war wealth as proposed was a direct attack upon thrift. A man who, during the war, stinted himself to idvest in' war loan would now see his savings raided if they exceeded £2OOO, while a profiteer, who scattered his newlymade riches, went free. Dealing with the effect on trade, Mr Martin said the demands of the banks for loans for legitimate purposes were increasing. A trader who wished to do his per-war trade required at least three times as much capital. It was a complete fallacy to think that ]because bankers' deposits had risen there was at hand a surplus fund Which could be tapped by taxation. , Mr Pain, joint manager of Lloyd's Bank, denied that there was any war ""wealth. He said the proposal before the committee was the greatest blow to credit the country had ever had. The tax would follow the great financial efforts made by the people during the war, and a less favourable time. He gave it as the deliberate opinion of himself and of prominent financiers" and bankers, that 'if the suggested tax _ was imposed the country would be in eerious danger of a financial panic such as the present generation i had never known.