Mr. CHAMBERLAINI come now to the Excess Profits Duty. I attempted last year to state fairly the arguments for and against the Excess Profits Duty when I asked the Committee to continue it for another year at a reduced rate of 40 per cent. But there was one factor in the situation which I have to confess I entirely failed to forecast. If hon. Members will cast their minds back to the circumstances in which I spoke last year, I do not think they will blame me or pretend to greater prescience. Industry was then disorganised, unemployment was rife, and there was every prospect of declining prices and a great fall in profits. But the results have been far otherwise. There has been no such decline; on the contrary, manufacturers are overwhelmed with orders in excess of what they can execute. Prices have risen and the level of profits has still further increased. Had I foreseen this situation there would have been no such large reduction in the duty last year, and the Committee will not be surprised to learn that in view of it, and subject to one condition, which I will explain, we propose not only to continue the duty for another year, but to increase it as from 1st January last, not indeed to the 80 per cent. rate at which it was in force in 1917 and 1918, but to the 60 per cent. at which it was fixed in 1916. I base my justification for that proposal on the continued prevalence of temporary conditions occasioned by the War or arising out of the War, creating a state of scarcity, hardly distinguishable in effect from monopoly, and giving capital engaged in industry wholly abnormal and often extravagant profits. I propose to increase the rate subject to one qualification. The qualification is this. As the Committee is aware, a Select Committee of this House is now enquiring into the practicability of a levy on War increases of wealth. If, when they have completed their deliberations, the Committee make recommendations to the House, and if Parliament should decide later in the 97 year to impose such a levy, the funds thus made available will relieve the pressure of the financial situation and enable us to reverse the decision to increase the rate of Excess Profits Duty to 60 per cent. I shall propose, therefore, if it falls to my lot to submit to Parliament a Bill later in the year to make a levy on the increases of war wealth, to cancel this increase of the rate of Excess Profits Duty, and collect Excess Profits Duty for the year at the existing rate of 40 per cent. The increased revenue that will be derived from this source in the current year, on the assumption that the rate is 60 per cent., will be only £10,000,000, raising the estimate of the total revenue from this source from £210,000,000 to £220,000,000. As I have already reminded the Committee, the main effect of any change in the rate of Excess Profits Duty is felt in the year following the change, and more important than the additional £10,000,000 in cash this year will be the further sum amounting to £65,000,000 accruing but not collected during the present year, and a still further sum of £25,000,000 receivable the year after. In other words, the addition to the Tax will produce £100,000,000 in all. This increase will involve a corresponding increase in the rate of Excess Mineral Rights Duty, a Duty which is complementary to the Excess Profits Duty.