Mr David Mason: While congratulating the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, may I ask him, in view of the adjournment of the House, whether he will take steps to see that an official statement is issued from time to time, either frown the Treasury or from the Bank of England, as to the continued progress of this admirable conversion scheme?
Mr David Mason: Who pays for it?
Mr David Mason: 40. asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the loss which the Treasury has incurred as a result of the recent purchases of gold made by the Bank of England?
Mr David Mason: Are not the Treasury bound to indemnify the Bank of England for the loss which they must make owing to their buying at a premium at the present time?
Mr David Mason: Am I not entitled to an answer?
Mr David Mason: I entirely agree with what has been said by the hon. Member for North Paddington (Mr. Bracken) with regard to the very serious departure from constitutional practice upon which the Government have entered in going into the exchange business. In my younger days I had some experience of a financial house, and I can confirm what the hon. Gentleman has just said— the house was an international...
Mr David Mason: Would the right hon. Gentleman explain the losses on the purchase of gold bullion?
Mr David Mason: I wish just to express my concurrence with the views of the hon. and gallant Member for Gainsborough (Captain Crookshank), and to say that I am entirely in accord with the very moderate suggestion of reporting on these accounts. It is a very mild proposal, and I hope the Chancellor of the Exchequer will see his way to agree to it.
Mr David Mason: That is Government stock.
Mr David Mason: I rather hoped that my right hon. and gallant Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury would meet my hon. Friend the Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Mander) by offering some concession in the way of time for the collection of these duties. To place many stocks on the market at one time leads to great depreciation, which means an ultimate loss to the whole country, and I am sure the...
Mr David Mason: If I heard the right hon. and gallant Gentleman correctly he stated that the reduction in this Clause was for the purpose of meeting the debt due to America. I understand that the amount due to America in an ordinary year is something like £30,000,000, and at the present rate of exchange is something like £49,000,000. Therefore, the hon. and learned Member for East Bristol (Sir S. Cripps)...
Mr David Mason: The hon. Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. A. Bevan) made some remark about the vast amount of cheap money that prevails to-day. That is rather an indication of bad trade and of distress than of affluence.
Mr David Mason: I am glad the hon. Member agrees with me that this is evidence rather of poverty and distress. In regard to the Amendment, I agree with what has been said as to the very heavy burden which the Tea Duty places upon the poorest in the land.
Mr David Mason: The tax brings in £4,100,000, which is drawn from the general community. It is a very heavy tax and it presses most on the very poor. The old age pensioner is very much more heavily taxed, in proportion, than other sections of the community. The tax touches a class of people who are often unable to defend themselves, who are scattered all over the land and are represented by Conservatives,...
Mr David Mason: You did take that course with regard to the Finance Bill by introducing later the Silk Duties.
Mr David Mason: Not necessarily.
Mr David Mason: I hope the Government will consider the Amendment. It does not involve any departure from any Conservative principle. I agree that the question of putting taxes on meat and grain did not enter into the issue at the last election and if the Government accept the Amendment it merely means that up to a point they subscribe to the general principle that the right to impose taxation on wheat and...
Mr David Mason: That showed the shrewdness and prescience of the right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George). It showed that he judged correctly that if we had a majority of Conservative Members we should get this. But I think I am stating the case truly and impartially when I say that while the right hon. and gallant Member stood as a Protectionist and I as a Free Trader, that the...
Mr David Mason: I am pleading for the opportunity, in supporting this Amendment.
Mr David Mason: All that the Amendment calls for is the exclusion of this small committee from the power to decide such a matter. We desire, and I am sure many hon. Members desire, an opportunity to exercise the ancient right of the House of Commons to decide this important problem. It is true that certain procedure is proposed whereby after this taxation has become the law of the land, when this Advisory...