So we come to the question of profits and taxation, Last November I ventured to say that strong forces were even then at work making for an upturn in the trade cycle. Actually, I expected more assistance from American recovery than has been forthcoming. Conversely, I unserrated the help we should obtain from defence expenditure.
Later, on March 1 thi; year—after Sir John Simon's preliminary statement about the size of the Budget and the proposed method of financing the increase in defence expenditure declared that nothing but a catastrophe could prevent an industrial recovery this year. At that time, general opinion was divided. but in April it suddenly swung round. Not only is recovery now taken for granted, but the belief is widely held that the prospective expansion of credit will be of such dimensions as to cause a shortage of plant and labour in many industries and, consequently, Substantial rise in prices and wages.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.