§ Mr. COWANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that under Section 13 of the Finance Act, 1910, payment of Reversion Duty was demanded by the Inland Revenue in respect of subjects No. 53, High Street, New Aberdour, in the county of Aberdeen, upon the conversion of a lease into a feu, and that Mr. A. Dingwall Fordyce, the proprietor, paid in accordance with such demand the suns of £11 6s. 9d. in the 14th of May, 1913; whether he is aware that the subjects in respect of which this Reversion Duty was 897W paid were tenanted by poor persons and that in converting the lease the landlord derived practically no benefit but renounced his right to claim the property which the tenant had erected on the site, thereby conferring a benefit upon the tenant, who now holds his subjects in perpetuity; and whether he will take steps to amend the Finance Act so as to exempt such cases in future?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI am aware of the case to which my hon. Friend alludes. I do not think that a landlord who wishes to deal generously with his tenant respecting the conversion of a lease into a feu need have any difficulty in arranging such terms as will be favourable to the tenant and at the same time involve no greater sacrifice to himself than he would have been prepared to suffer before the passing of the Finance (1909–10) Act, 1910. In these circumstances amendment of the Act in the direction suggested by my hon. Friend does not appear to be necessary.