Transfer of Sum from Road Fund to Exchequer.

Part of Income Tax. – in the House of Commons at on 26 April 1927.

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Photo of Mr Edwin Scrymgeour Mr Edwin Scrymgeour , Dundee

I have never made any contribution to the Debates on the Tea Duty, but I desire to do so to-day simply because the question of indirect taxation is involved. The difficulty of presenting any case on the subject of indirect taxation arises from the fact that the question has been discussed so often before and the arguments against it have been submitted on previous occasions, and with considerable force. At the same time, it is essential that this matter should be strenuously urged on the attention of the House on every possible occasion, and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Snowden) has already pointed out that the Labour party are very anxious to emphasise the importance of the question of indirect taxation and are determined that the issue shall be straightforwardly faced by the present Government as, I understand, the Labour party are prepared to face it. If we take into consideration such homes as those which were at one time represented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself as a Member for the city of Dundee, we must all realise the tremendous struggle which the people in the poorer parts of that city have to face to make all ends meet. The Government cannot use the coal dispute of last year as an excuse for keeping on the Tea Duty, because in other years the same position was taken up in regard to it as is being taken up to-day. It strikes one who is earnestly concerned about the welfare of these combatants in the struggle of life as being very strange that the Government should take up this hard and adamant position and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Government should persistently urge the retention of a Duty which presses so hardly on the poorest of the people.

The duty is not defended on the ground of being justifiably imposed; it is defended on the ground of use and want. And when these people find that the Government and the majority of the Members of the House of Commons persistently go into the Lobby in opposition to any reduction of this and other similar duties it is a proof to them of what is already in their minds, and what is being strongly impressed on the poorer classes of the community at the moment—namely, that you cannot make any impression upon the House of Commons when dealing with questions of this kind. Many of these poor people are desperate. In regard to another issue which will be before this House next week it will be urged from the Government side that there is a desperate class struggle going on. That may be so, but the answer of the Government to poor people who are in need of Poor Law relief, people in such circumstances that the board of guardians have to intervene and the parish councils have to intervene in order to give the relief that is being asked, is that it is not a question of giving something, but a question of taking something from them. The Government appear to be adamantine, and while some hon. Members may think that the hon. Member who has just spoken was too hard in his language I would ask them to remember and face the formidable and apparent facts of the situation.

Although we cannot make any impression in the House of Commons it is our bounden duty to drive home the point that these people are in desperate straits, and without introducing anything of a personal nature it is an appalling situation to find at the door of your own domicile people who tell you that there is no hope at the Employment Exchange, and no hope at the parish council. They ask you what they are to do, and you are unable to give them any satisfactory reply or aid. That is an appalling set of conditions which gives rise to the desperate idea of revolution. I am dead against revolutionary methods. I believe we can constitutionally do justice by the people, but all our attempts so far to get justice is like an attempt to get justice out of the heart of a stone. If the people ask for bread and you give them a stone you need not be surprised if they get desperate and declare that apparently there is nothing else for it but to take courses which are absolutely unconstitutional. I appeal to the Government to grant this small modicum of justice to the poor and destitute and not persist in an attitude which makes the poorer classes of the country more desperate than ever to secure this measure of justice by unconstitutional methods. I appeal to the Government to do something for them.