Finance—Public & Private
• The Government's Task—II
AT this early stage of the new Government's existence it is, of course, impossible to determine the precise manner in which Ministers will interpret and resolve to act upon the mandate given by the ,country; but at present the signs are fairly favourable both as regards the forma- tion of the Cabinet and as regards the speech delivered by the Prime Minister at the Annual Banquet at the Guildhall last Monday. With regard to the composition bf the new Ministry, it is only necessary that I should refer to two appointments to demonstrate the evident intention bf the Government to place a true interpretation upon the mandate given by the electors. I refer, of course, to the appointment of Mr. Neville Chamberlain to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer and of Mr. Walter Runciman to the Board of Trade. Here we have the two key positions. in the Cabinet, so far as commerce and finance are concerned, entrusted to the care, on the one band, of an ardent Tariff Reformer, and, in the case of the Board of Trade, to a staunch Free Trader, for it is no reflection upon Mr. Runciman's fidelity: to Free Trade principles that he should quite recently have 'ecognized that exceptional measures in the direction of testriction of imports might be required to rectify the trade balance and to bring about an improvement in the exchange position. Neither of these gentlemen is likely to have accepted their respective offices unless on +certain main points they were of one mind. In fact, I should be inclined to regard the appointments— especially having regard to the fact that Mr. Snowden is in the Cabinet—as indicating, on the one hand, the unlikelihood of any rabid Protectionist programme, and, on the other hand, the unlikelihood that any narrow view with regard . to Free Trade will deter the Govern-. ment from imposing whatever fiscal, measures may be deemed necessary to deal with a .wholly abnormal 'situation.
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