Foreign News: Again, Surplus

On few Britons does Olympian self-satisfaction sit more easily than on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, chill, patrician Arthur Neville Chamberlain, who has given Britain three budget surpluses in succession. That for 1934-35 helped win for the Conservative Party last year’s British general elections. Last week, as fiscal 1935-36 closed, Chancellor Chamberlain let it be known that he had underestimated the surplus by two-thirds, thus doing his bit to reconcile Britons to a walloping rearmament program and a possible budget deficit for 1936-37. Instead of £5,610,000 ($28,050,000), the 1935-36 surplus had turned out to be £15,408,000.

Nearly all Mr. Chamberlain’s income estimates had been superconservative. The Exchequer had received in estate duties approximately £8,000,000 more than expected; in income taxes an extra £5,500,000; in customs and excise duties an extra £8,500,000. Servicing of the national debt had cost £12,500,000 less than expected, a windfall promptly plowed back into amortization. The only bad news was that Britain’s role of watchdog in the Mediterranean during the Italo-Ethiopian War had cost her an unexpected £13,000,000.