London, Apr. 25.
British taxpayers are sighing with relief to-day following widespread reports that Sir John Simon's first Budget, to be introduced in the House of Commons tomorrow, contains no increases in income-tax. churches, officials announced today that a gigantic "purge" was under way and they threatened to close Moscow's twenty remaining churches on charges that ecclesiastic counter-revolutionaries were allied w: h Germany and Japan in plotting to overthrow the Government.
The purge was concentrated in the Moscow district and it was revealed that already nearly a dozen monks, priests and nuns have been imprisoned.
They were arrested on charges of advocating among the devout, plans for sabotage and' spying against the Government.
The final draft of the budget was completed last night by Sir John Simon in the study of his Surrey Home. It was submitted for final approval to the Cabinet this afternoon.
The Budget is expected to be one of the biggest on record, and it is freely predicted that expenditure will total £1,000,000,000.
There is general agreement, however, that a considerable slice of the extra funds required will be provided by measures to check taxation and that the rest will come from indirect taxation, probably on luxury commodities. this connection political correspondents offer a bewildering ty of opinions—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.