Amendment of Law.

Part of Orders of the Day — Ways and Means. – in the House of Commons at on 27 April 1926.

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Photo of Mr Ronald McNeill Mr Ronald McNeill , Canterbury

I withdraw all accusations against the right hon. Gentleman. I understood he did not mean it in that sense. We, on this side, entirely misunderstood him. As the matter has been brought up, let me say exactly what occurred and I submit to the House that it was a very proper thing. It is well known—from time to time plenty of pressure has been brought upon the Government on the subject—that there is a large debt to this country from the French Government, that there have been negotiations going on for a settlement of that debt, that an arrangement had been come to, that the Finance Minister was coming to London, and that the whole arrangement had been held up by political disturbances in France. Does the right hon. Gentleman suggest that it shows a desparate state of embarrassment on the part of my right hon. Friend that he is anxious for this settlement to be brought to a conclusion? Is it anything improper or ridiculous or a sign of embarrassment that he should be anxious, before laying before the country a review of the financial position for the whole year, that, if possible, we should know where we stood in regard to the French Debt, and, if an arrangement should be come to, whether we could count on any payment on account of the French Debt before he made the financial statement of the year? That seems to me a most natural and proper thing for my right hon. Friend to do, and I cannot understand that, under the circumstances of the moment, any Chancellor of the Exchequer in his senses would have omitted to do it. I cannot accept the view of the right hon. Gentleman opposite that this is a sign of the terrible embarrassment of my right hon. Friend, whom he appears to think is nosing about to find hen roosts that he can rob, or the view that, because he finds across the Channel a tree that he can shake, his embarrassment is such that he can be spoken of in the language of denunciation with which the right hon. Gentleman concluded his peroration.

The right hon. Gentleman, continuing his criticism of the Budget speech, made a great point about the difference between imposition of taxation and reimposition. He said they were exactly the same thing, and he reproached my right hon. Friend because last year he said, as he says this year, that it would be a very unfortunate thing if the remission of taxation which were then made had to be reimposed. They have not been reimposed, but the right hon. Gentleman says, "No, perhaps not, but it is exactly the same thing because he has put on other taxes in other directions." It is quite true that, later on in his speech, the right hon. Gentleman made a peculiar revelation of the state of his mind on what the Chancellor of the Exchequer calls optional taxation. It is not only for him the same thing whether you reimpose Income Tax or whether you impose a Betting Tax, but the fact that the tax is optional is positively mischievous, according to the right hon. Gentleman's point of view. He hardly ever heard of such a thing before. Why, almost all indirect taxation is optional in that sense! Any indirect taxation which is not put upon the absolute necessities of life is optional in that sense, and has always been recognised as such. I do not know where the right hon. Gentleman studied his taxation and economics when he says that ho never heard of such a thing. It has always been regarded as one of the great advantages of indirect taxation, that it was open to the taxpayer, in regard to that particular form of taxation, whether he would contribute to the State or refrain from indulgence. That is the option at the disposal of everybody who takes a glass of beer.