26 JANUARY 1929, Page 3

On Tuesday in the House of Commons Mr. Briggs moved

his amendment, which was significantly sup- ported by many Unionists, to exclude breweries, distil- leries and tobacco factories from the category of those industries which will benefit under the derating scheme. Mr. Chamberlain, as we expected, took the position that it was out of the question to make distinctions between the prosperity and the morality of individual industries. But although he summarily rejected the amendment, he admitted that the proper alternative was, as we sug- gested last week, to counter-balance the remission of rates with increased taxation.

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