complaining of the weakness of the Treasury, said that his
Select Committee, in trying to promote economy in the Departments, felt as if they were baling out water with a sieve, for the War Cabinet had granted in bonuses since August no lees than £186000,000. Mr. Chamberlain declared that the Treasury was understaffed, and therefore unequal to its task. Mr. Boner Law in reply said that he had appointed two Committees—an old device for evading a question, of which no Government ever made such frequent use. In regard to the proposal for a levy on capital, he said that his remarks to a Labour deputation were not intended for publication, but amounted only to an admission that he had an open mind as to the possibility of such a levy. It was at present an academic question. Mr. Asquith put the case far better. He did not deal& to rule out, in some contingencies, a tax on capital, though the difficulties in it were, to his mind, at present insur- mountable. But he added, as Mr. Boner Law failed to do, that in any discussion of the subject it must be made clear that we would not, directly or indirectly, repudiate our National Debt.
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