§ Mr. A. V. ALEXANDERWith your permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to ask the indulgence of the House to make a very short personal explanation of a matter connected with the OFFICIAL REPORT of the Debates.
In reply to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thursday last, I made one or two references to the co-operative society position, and, unfortunately, the Report 867 is inaccurate. In column 725 of the OFFICIAL REPORT it states:
if you take the salaries to-day, we fake far more under Schedule A than is estimated.What I actually said was:If you take the position to-day, we pay far more under Schedule A.Another point is that I am reported as saying:In regard to the inquiry, the Taxation Committee of 1905 and the Royal Commission of 1919 said that private traders had made their case.Whereas what I actually said was:The report of the Buxton Committee of 1905 and the Royal Commission of 1919 are largely agreed in principle. The Buxton Committee stated that the private traders had failed to make out any case for a change.The other point is that I am reported in column 726 as saying:The profit is taxable profit.What I said was:The question as to whether a profit is a taxable profit does not depend upon the use to which it is put, but upon its source, and the manner in which it is made.I apologise to the House for raising this matter. It is only because this question is followed so widely in the trade Press, who take their information from the daily OFFICIAL REPORT of the Debates, and I did not wish them to be under a misapprehension.