He suggested the taxation of all earned incomes above a stated minimum, the tax to be deducted at the source: special attention to those whose earnings had increased as a result of the war; the issue of premium bonds; reduction of the excess profits tax from 100 per cent to 90 per cent, and further restriction on luxury consumption.
Mr. F. W. Pethick-Lawtence, Labour member for East Edinburgh, expressed the strong conviction that the country was prepared to continue the war until the rüenace of Hitlerism was destroyed. He declared that if the war should go on longer than three years, the Briti financial situation would still be not impossible to deal with.
There was nothing, he asserted, to prevent a lowering of the interest on long-term loans to 2!" per cent. The Chancellor had power to do it, and the people would support him.
Mr. Pethick-Lawrence said he was among those who thought that the Chancellor could have imposed even heavier burdens. He suggested that the Treasury Bill rate of interest should be reduced to half or three-quarters instead of one per cent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.