tent to say only
"save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics.
We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle
like this unless it conserves its resources--not even the richest
countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these
things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said:

"It is upon these simple human feelings of loyalty, comradeship and
patriotism that the great War Savings Movement is founded. Because of
the strength of this foundation I feel convinced that we shall succeed
in the great national work we are setting out to perform. However
difficult our task may prove, however serious the times ahead, this
spirit will carry us safely and triumphantly through everything, and
in the end we shall find ourselves not weakened but strengthened
on account of these same difficulties which we shall most surely
overcome."

The problem before us is the problem of finding ten times the amount
of money we did before the war for National purposes. We are spending
over $30,000,000 a day. By our taxations, which includes an 80 per
cent tax on excess profits, we are raising over 25 per cent of our
total expenditure. We have met some other part of our expenditure in
the three years of war by using our gold reserve very heavily; a great
deal of it in payments in America, where you now possess more than a
third of the gold of the entire world. We have also used a portion of
our securities, our capital wealth and past savings, and we have had
to borrow heavily. Our National Debt is now L4,000,000,000. It was
L700,000,000 at the outbreak of war. L1,000,000,000 has been lent to
our Allies and the Dominions.

Numbers of people have an impression that Governments can find money.
They can, to a certain extent, but only in a very limited way, without
great harm. There is in this creation an addition to the buying power
of the community, but if everybody goes on spending no addition to
the productive power, so it only creates high prices and hardship. The
inflation of currency caused by it is a risk and an evil. The sound
way is to get the money by taxation, from resources and in real
voluntary loans.

America's burden is very much the same as our own, and the need
here also of voluntary saving and lending to the extent of more than
half the expenditure is clear. America, like ourselves, is very
wisely trying to democratise its war loans. Nothing is wiser or
sound