Surplus

Up in Scotland, tired and wet after a day's fishing, Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain changed his socks and sat down with a warm drink. The telephone jangled.

"Government priority," an excited voice called. "The Treasury calling the Chancellor of the Exchequer."

As Mr. Chamberlain listened his face broke into a broad grin. When the call was finished he went back to the sideboard and filled up his glass again, for here was something better than a 40-lb. salmon. The young man at the Treasury had just finished balancing Britain's books for the fiscal year. The Treasury could now announce a surplus of -L-31,148,000, greatest since 1923-24, and an achievement in belt-tightening unmatched by any other country since Depression.

Year ago Britain had a deficit of -L-32,279,000. In announcing his very stiff budget for the year Neville Chamberlain hoped publicly for a surplus of -L-1,300,000 but privately was ready to consider himself lucky if the budget balanced. In Scotland last week Chancellor Chamberlain went over the figures carefully to see where he had made his happy mistake.

Income tax receipts were almost exactly what he had expected. The tariff had proved to be a gold mine, bringing in -L-17,000,000 more than anyone had estimated. General business improvement accounted for most of the rest. But what really brought the surplus to such pleasing plumpness was that no one thought Sir John Ellerman would die so soon.

Sir John Reeves Ellerman was one of the least publicized and richest men in the world. An impressive fellow with a great spade beard and a hawk nose, he owned and operated some half-dozen lines of steamers, besides great quantities of real estate and at one time a string of newspapers and a batch of London smart-charts. Living in an almost miserly simplicity, he was only a vague name to most Britons, despite his fat checks to British charities. His last charity occurred when he died in Dieppe last July, aged 71, leaving an estate of $70,000,000. The British Treasury took enough out of that estate in death duties to round out its surplus.

Because most Britons feel certain that the present improvement in British trade is bound to continue they estimate that Neville Chamberlain will have a surplus of approximately -L-50,000,000 to toy with before the next budget must be presented April 17. Last week one result seemed certain--some relief for the British taxpayer who last year paid a basic rate of 25% on his income.

The most important person to oppose any reduction in the income tax was none less than the Most Reverend William Temple, Archbishop of York. Long regarded as a parlor pink by most of the Conservatives of his flock, His Grace would leave income taxes where they are, apply almost the whole surplus to increasing the dole and relieving unemployment. In all churches of the Archdiocese of York last week appeared posters begging prayers "for the Divine guidance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer."

His Grace's suggestion was received with marked apathy not only by businessmen but by nearly all politicians, anxious to sweeten taxpayers' tempers. Raged Economist Francis W. Hirst in the Times:

"If the Chancellor of the Exchequer or a mere economist were to urge upon the Episcopal Bench a change in the theology or ritual of the Church of England, his recommendations would doubtless evoke an appropriate expression of gratitude; but I doubt whether much weight would be attached to them.''

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.