EARL of RONALDSHAYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if his attention has been called to the fact that the county of Middlesex Exchequer Contribution Fund is no longer adequate to the demands made upon it, and that in consequence the Middlesex County Council have notified the other local bodies in Middlesex that they are able to defray 60 per cent, only of the cost of such charges as have hitherto been met from this fund; and will he say 1693W whether he is prepared to take steps to increase the fund by allocating to it additional sources of revenue, or by any other means?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. I am not prepared to take steps such as are suggested in the second part of the question in regard to this particular aspect of the relations between Imperial and local finance until the general question can be dealt with as a whole.