TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20833, 17 June 1939, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Britain’s Rearmament Budget “Sir John Simon,” states the Financial News, “has framed his revenue estimates in terms of the economic situation as it now exists, not as it tuay be in a few months’ time. That is ‘sound’ budgeting in the Gladstonian sense. Events alone can prove its adequacy or otherwise in a wholly abnormal period, to which neither peace-time nor war-time financial canons are truly applicable. If it proves necessary still further to expedite our war preparations (and, still more, if war itself is thrust upon us) then clearly the supplementary expenditure allowed for in the present Budget will be greatly exceeded. But in that event, the tempo of national activity will be quickened, and the Chancellor’s estimates of revenue, which have been framed throughout on the basis of the continuance of a state of mild recession in industry, will undoubtedly be largely surpassed. And if full employment is reached, and ineipiently inflationary signs appear, then the imposition of new taxation will be not only practicable, but salutary. In short, this Budget may turn out right, but not invariably for the right reasons. . . . The rest lies ou the lap of the gods—or of Herr Hitler,”