§ Mr. JACOBasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he can see his way to increase the token value of the penny by 20 per cent., in order to secure a reduction in the cost of living through the restoration of pennyworths of full pre-War value, and the benefit of a decimal coinage based on the pound sterling, of which the proposed new penny would represent one two-hundredth part?
§ Mr. McNEILLThe answer is in the negative. The proposal is open to the grave objections set out in paragraphs. 28 to 39 of the Majority Report of the Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage of 1920 (Command Paper 628), and I do not see any reason for the assumption that the change would in fact reduce the cost of living.