MR. BONAR LAW PACKS HIS TRUNKS.
The House did not rise till half-past one this morning, and was again faced with a long night's work. In vain Sir Donald Maclean protested against the practice of taking wee sma' Bills in the wee sma' oors. Mr. Bonar Law was obdurate. He supposed the House had not abandoned all hope of an Autumn recess. Well, then, had not the poet said that the best of all ways to lengthen our days was to steal a few hours from the night?
The Report stage of the Finance Bill was finished off, but not until the Government had experienced some shocks. The Corporation tax, intended partially to fill the yawning void which will be caused some day by the disappearance of E.P.D.—on the principle that one bad tax deserves another—was condemned with equal vigour, but for entirely different reasons, by Colonel Wedgwood and Sir F. Banbury. They "told" together against it and had the satisfaction of bringing the Government majority down to fifty-five.
The champions of the Co-operative Societies also put up a strong fight against the proposal to make their profits, for the first time, subject to taxation. Mr. Chamberlain declined, however, to put them in a privileged position as compared with other traders, but carried his point only by sixty-one votes.
Wednesday, July 28th.—In spite of the limitation of Questions the Member for Central Hull still manages to extract a good deal of information from the Treasury Bench. This afternoon he learned from Mr. Long that the Board of Admiralty was not created solely for the purpose of satisfying his curiosity; and from Mr. Kellaway that the equipment of even the most versatile Under-Secretary does not include the gift of prophecy.
At long last the House learned the Government decision regarding the increase in railway fares. It is to come into force on August 6th, by which time the most belated Bank-Holiday-maker should have returned from his revels. Mr. Bonar Law appended to the announcement a surely otiose explanation of the necessity of the increase. Everybody knows that railways are being run at a loss, due in the main to the increased wages of miners and railway-men. Mr. Thomas rather weakly submitted that an important factor was the larger number of men employed, and was promptly met with the retort that that was because of the shorter hours worked.
Cheered by the statement of its Leader that he still hoped to get the adjournment by August 14th the House plunged with renewed zest into the final stage of the Finance Bill. Mr. Bottomley, whose passion for accuracy is notorious, inveighed against the lack of this quality in the Treasury Estimates. As for the war-debt, since the Government had failed to "make Germany pay," he urged that the principal burden should be left for posterity to shoulder.
These sentiments rather shocked Mr. Asquith, who, while mildly critical of Government methods, was all in favour of "severe, stringent, drastic taxation." Mr. Chamberlain repeated his now familiar lecture to the House of Commons, which, while accusing the Government of extravagance, was always pressing for new forms of expenditure. In the study of economy he dislikes abstractions—except from the pockets of the taxpayer.