Mr John Thomas: Of course, it is possible to raise finance by means of debenture stock, but it is quite a different matter. It is comparatively simple if the assets are there to cover the debentures. I was really dealing with the question of working capital. I know of many cases in which the Industrial Finance Corporation made an advance on the basis of preference shares, and, owing to this incidence of the...
Mr John Thomas: I will with pleasure. I refer to the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, for one. I hope that will satisfy the hon. Gentleman.
Mr John Thomas: There is a suggestion that a capital levy would be impracticable. There are very good reasons in support of that, but I suggest that there should be some sort of tax on realised capital profits, which is not at all a capital levy under a different name. I have in mind cases of company promotions. One has only to read "The Times" any day. One sees the prospectuses of companies, and one finds...
Mr John Thomas: The cases are not entirely parallel. Very often a man who sells a house for £1,500, if it is his own house, is probably going to another district where he will buy another house for which he will probably have to pay £2,000. As to the capital profits that have been made since the advent of the Labour Government, it is disgusting—I cannot use any other term—to think that this Government...
Mr John Thomas: I made no reference to confiscation of capital; all I asked for was a percentage on the increased realised capital profits, which is by no means the same thing.
Mr John Thomas: I think the hon. Gentleman will admit that both the countries he has mentioned may require dollars in payment for timber and may not be willing to accept the £ sterling?
Mr John Thomas: There is a difference between the payment to be made under Clause 21 and the income accruing after two years. The hon. and gallant Member opposite suggested that people who went into the second year might get no income, but income will accrue, and will be eventually paid.
Mr John Thomas: The right hon. Member for Bromley (Mr. H. Macmillan) referred to payments of income, and I am trying to deal with that point. I think the Government have met the case which the right hon. Gentleman put forward, and that advances may be obtained both as capital and as income.
Mr John Thomas: I was just coming to that point. I have tried to demonstrate that the income will accrue. Therefore there is provision that an advance may be made under the Bill for the total accruing income or part of it. In my submission that argument does not apply. I recognise that the Government have fully met the point put forward by the Opposition.
Mr John Thomas: What does the hon. Member mean by adverse balances?
Mr John Thomas: With all due respect, an adverse balance cannot be interpreted as a loss on trading. If the hon. Member is referring to a loss on trading he should say so. We should know precisely to what he is referring.
Mr John Thomas: Do I understand that the right hon. Gentleman is suggesting the cancellation of war contracts without indemnity?
Mr John Thomas: There would be no economy if there was an indemnity to be paid.
Mr John Thomas: This position has existed over a numberof years, and I would like to ask the right hon. Gentleman why previous Administrations, extending over some 40 or 5o years, have not seen fit to introduce such a just rectification in their Budgets.
Mr John Thomas: Before the hon. Member puts the graph away, will he inform us what the steps represented on it involve in pounds, shillings and pence?
Mr John Thomas: Would the hon. Member tell me whether the prestige and goodwill which are attributed to the Bank of England to-day, and rightly so, are not entirely due to its having been under the canopy of the Government for a number of years?
Mr John Thomas: If I had been six months ago in the jungles of Africa and had not heard of the General Election, but had a radio and listened to the Budget speech, and if anyone had asked me whether it was a Conservative, a Liberal or a Labour Budget, I should have had to think for some time. I would have said, "There is no mention of food taxes or indirect taxes, so it cannot be a Liberal Budget." Then I...
Mr John Thomas: On a point of Order. That disappointment is not in regard to my consumption.
Mr John Thomas: Is it not a fact that although 2,000,000 people are being ex- cused the payment of Income Tax, the monetary value to them is no more than 1s. or 2s. per week?
