curious arithmetical coincidences on record, namely, the fact that the amount of cash produced by the loan was £473,000,000 and that £473,000,000 was also the amount of the deficit for the financial year, estimated by Mr. Chamberlain in a speech which he made in the Autumn.
This failure of the funding loan was interesting as the first indication of the growing wrath of the taxpayer concerning Government expenditure and the suspicion of investors concerning official promises. This suspicion was increased by a rather absurd attempt to continue war camouflage into peace finance. Mr. Chamberlain's reputation for an integrity quite unusually high among politicians makes it all the more remarkable that he should have brought pressure on the banks to make the success of this loan look much greater than it was, while at the same time impairing its real effectiveness. The result that was really wanted from the loan was that Treasury Bills in the hands of the banks and other official dealers in credit should be paid off out of money genuinely subscribed by the public for that purpose. Yet when the loan was found not to be going as well as was hoped, pressure was brought upon the banks that they should themselves subscribe money out of which their Treasury Bills were to be
