§ Before I come to explain the proposals which I shall submit to the Committee for the liquidation of this deficit I must invite hon. Members to join me in taking a wider survey of our financial responsibilities at this moment. It must be patent to everyone cognisant of the facts that fresh liabilities must be incurred next year in connection with the Navy and with social reform. These are commitments to which we are pledged, and from which no Government can honourably escape, and if I were to ignore these liabilities altogether in arranging my finance for this year I might, it is true, lighten my burden Very considerably, but I should be guilty of an unbusinesslike short-sightedness which would be highly culpable.
§ I cannot conceive anything which would be more disturbing to trade than the uncertainty which must ensue if it were thought that in addition to the taxes for the year new and unknown taxes were looming in the near future. It is far better, as well as bolder, therefore, that we should frankly examine the financial outlook and make provision not merely for the ascertained needs of the year, but for the further and increased liabilities which are not merely in sight, but to which the Government and Parliament are definitely and irrevocably committed. Prudence seems to me to dictate such a policy, and although it may seem as if we were needlessly anticipating troubles of the morrow, still those troubles are inevitable, and it is therefore better to provide against them without delay. This is the course which would be adopted in any commercial undertaking conducted on ordinary business lines. Whenever an exceptional effort has to be made to raise money for the discharge of liabilities already incurred stock is generally taken of all further liabilities which must necessarily be incurred in the immediate future, and the financial provision made generally covers both present and future indebtedness. That is the course I propose to 478 follow in the financial operations which I shall submit to the judgment of the Committee.