Mr. MacDonald described how news of financial danger brought him
back to London and how he met his colleagues in the Cabinet and then the leaders of the other political parties. In the third week of August credits were " practically exhausted." Among the causes of the lack of confidence he put the May Economy Report, and he did not question that it told the truth about us when he said that it became " a great inter- national document " in the hands of friends and of those who were not friends of this country. He spoke with scorn of the propaganda about a bankers' plot, as though bankers, above all, were not deeply interested in the prosperity of the country and did not most of all dread financial panics. He went on amid rude inter- ruptions to describe the Cabinet Committee's use of the May Report for' considering what economies could be adopted. Mr. MacDonald specifically stated that never once did the bankers, who had to be consulted, interfere with the political proposals. He pointed to a future such as would arise if the £ " tumbled," as it inevitably would but for the financial measures proposed ; the chaos of uncertainty which would stop all trade. He illustrated the protection offered to the poorest by saying how much better off he would himself be with his salary cut by £1,000, as is proposed, than with a salary undiminished in figures, but robbed of its pur- chasing power. * * * *
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