On the same day the Commons returned to the Finance
Bill and the clauses dealing with the Betting Duty were passed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's amend- ments fixing the rate of duty on credit bets at Ea per cent., and on racecourse bets at 2 per cent. He said that the turnover of legal betting was estimated at L275,000,000 a year and that he expected the duties to produce £1,500,000 this year. On Saturday the French Debt Agreement was discussed. We can pass by some very reasonable criticism of Mr. Mellon's unfair comments on European War-debts, which misrepresented Great Britain's position. Mr. Hilton Young made the point that a " safeguarding " clause was of no help to French credit. Mr. Snowden criticized the agreement and thought that our general attitude was too generous to other people. But Mr. Churchill's defence of the Treasury was on the whole satisfactory. The Finance Bill was read a third time on Wednesday ..
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