Danger of an upheaval which would have reduced output and led to defeat, was a sinister possibility, but surely it would not have been increased but lessened if the war had been paid for, as it might have been, out of the current income of the nation, and out of the sale or pledge of existing assets abroad. To suppose that there are funds which can be tapped by borrowing but are sealed to the tax-gatherer is a slur on the efficiency of the latter which our Inland Revenue Office does not deserve. You cannot get more out of a nation than it can produce in goods and services, an¢ if you deal bravely and intelligently with a brave and intelligent nation you get from it, for a great national purpose, all that it produces except what it must have to keep it alive. We could have met the whole cost of the war, which would not have been nearly so great if it had been better financed, without calling on ourselves to stint to that point. When we remember what the spirit of the country was like in the early days of the war, it is clear that if the right attempt had then been made to put the facts of war finance before the people they would have understood and accepted them and been prepared to face them, instead of being deluded by monetary will-o'-the-wisps, which
