SIR,—Mr. Robertson Scott dismisses the £150,000,000 (an under-estimate) accruing to
the revenue from liquor taxation on the ground that it comes from the public. So does Income Tax.
Your readers may like to be told what a plain citizen said in my hearing last week. "When I put Li into War Savings Certificates," he said, " I lend Li to the State, which pays me interest on my loan and must some day repay the principal in full. When I buy a dozen bottles of sherry I give the revenue LI 4s. out-and-out, which the State takes absolutely and finally. For nearly three months, the Sherry gives pleasure to my few black-out callers ; I strengthen my country's export position ; and I do a bit for anti-Bolshevist Spain." Saving and Spending should be companions, not antagonists : haec oportuit facere et illa non omittere.—Yours faithfully, ERNEST OLDMEADOW. 20 Temple Fortune Lane, N.W. z z.
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