COST OF LIVING (GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY).

HC Deb 04 March 1920 vol 126 cc687-8W

Captain COOTE

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that an agitation has been started in the country in order to lay the blame for the continuance of high prices upon Government extravagance; and whether he proposes to take any steps, such as the issue of a White Paper, to persuade people that the Treasury has been an efficient guardian of the public funds?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

I am well aware of the tendency to treat the Government as responsible for all the ills which flesh is heir to, but I cannot undertake to deal with every ignorant or malicious rumour by the issue of White Papers.Who makes the quartern loaf and Luddites rise? Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies?