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of foreign financiers) if we suppose that we canmake the economies under discussion withoutany repercussions on the number of the un-employed to be supported or on the yield of theexisting taxes.

Yet if we carry “Economy” of every kindto its logical conclusion, we shall find that wehave balanced the Budget at nought on bothsides, with all of us flat on our backs starving todeath from a refusal, for reasons of economy, tobuy one another’s services.

The Prime Minister has said that it is likethe war over again, and many people believehim. But this is exactly the opposite of thetruth. During the war it was useful to refrainfrom any avoidable expenditure because thiswould release resources for the insatiable de-mands of military operations. What are wereleasing resources for to-day? To stand atstreet corners and draw the dole.

When we already have a great amount ofunemployment and unused resources of everydescription, economy is only useful from thenational point of view in so far as it diminishesour consumption of imported goods. For the rest,its fruits are entirely wasted in unemployment,business losses, and reduced savings. But it isan extraordinarily indirect and wasteful way ofreducing imports.

If we throw men out of work and reduce theincomes of Government employees so that thosedirectly and indirectly affected cannot afford tobuy so much imported food, to this extent the