WAR ECONOMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1940, Page 5

WAR ECONOMY

DEBATES IN THE COMMONS THIS WEEK CRITICISM OF BUDGET CHANCELLOR TO REPLY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 4. Two important questions will be before the House of Commons next week. On Tuesday the second reading of the Finance Bill will give the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Kingsley Wood, an opportunity of replying to the cisms that were voiced generally in the Press that the ‘‘interim” Budget is inadequate to meet the needs he himself summed up in his introductory speech, and that much more drastic financial measures may be deemed necessary to find the money needed for the successful prosecution of the war. On Wednesday, Mr Arthur Greenwood, Minister without Portfolio, and chairman of the committee of the WarCabinet which directs economic policy, will make a statement which will be followed by a debate on the Government's war time economic policy. Many members of Parliament expect Mr Greenwood will give some indication that that it will be the Government's policy to carry the reduction in the civilian consumption of goods even further than was contemplated by the imposition of the Purchase Tax, and that he will at the same time explain the Government's attitude to the war time relation of wages to the cost of living.