CONDITIONS FAVOURABLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 25, 13 February 1937, Page 10

CONDITIONS FAVOURABLE

Proposal May Lead to Boom LONDON, Feb. 12. Mr. Chamberlain 'a loan announce ment was made after the close of busi ness and did not affect prices on the Stock Exchange. The market is already dull and unlikely, in the opinion of the Times city editor, to derive much encouragement frorn the statement. Conditions for the raising of a loan aro hardly favourable at present. The Times, in an editorial, says the scale of British rearmament is wholly conditioned by the rc-armamenfc of others and the failuro of nations to agree upon stabilisation which is still I • earnestly sought by Britain. j The Daily Mail's political correspon- j dent says it is assumed a riso in the in- 1 come tax will now be smaller than anti- ■ cipated. Members of the Commons m close touch with the Government, express the opinion that it will not excet.d ithree pence. The Daily Tele^raph '» political corre- -

spondent says unofficial estimates place the defence expenditure of the nest five year9 at £1,200,000,000. "Let countries throughout the world mark the determined effort we are mak- . rng,'' said Sir Samuel Hoare at Birmingham. "Let them femember that when we put our hands to a great task we are willing to make great saerifices. Thoiigh we might be slow in starting, we are remarkable for the way in which we .eventually reach the winnibg posC " A 'greait empire that is also ^eak is. a menace to stability and a temptation- to an aggressor. ' ' Liberal members of the Commons will meet shertly to decide on their attitude. In thq meantime they express astonishment at the magnitude of the sum. ! The executive of the Parliamentary ' Labour Party met immediately after the announcement and unanimously expressed the opinion that the plan should be opposed. Mr. Pethick-Lawrence, a member of the executive and financisl secretary to the Treasury in the last Labour Government, said after. the meeting that it would lead to boom conditions in which there will be a vast rake-off in the shape of windfall profits, followed almost certainly by a depression, the brunt of which would be borne by the workers in the shape of & reduced standard of life.