As long as there is such a provision, what is the sense of doing this? One can meet any hard cases by exercising discretionary powers instead of telling a sort of statutory lie, and I should have thought that it was very much better to do so.

If the hon. Gentleman wants to cover this particular case, I suggest that instead of putting in a general provision of this sort, which is misleading, and, I think, rather dangerous, it would be very much better to amend the Clause to meet the particular point which he wants to cover. That point is the case of foreign countries—no doubt particularly developing countries—where a 50 per cent. or 51 per cent. interest is not allowed to a foreigner. I understand the difficulty about it. All that is happening is that the Treasury is being very naughty. It is telling a lie because it is too lazy to exercise its discretionary powers. Or perhaps I should say that it is making the Bill tell a lie because it is too lazy to exercise those powers.

However repulsive the hon. Gentleman may think my language, I entreat him to consider what in my opinion is a real and dangerous point, and to give an undertaking that he will reconsider this matter. I think that we shall want to return to it at a later stage of the Bill to try, with our clumsy hands, and without the skilled assistance of Treasury draftsmen, to meet the facts of the case instead of opening the stable door rather too wide to taxpayers.