ABSTRACT
The maintenance of financial stability was therefore the primary duty of the Second National Government and its chief claim to credit is that it is believed to have triumphantly achieved this object. When, in April 1932, Mr., Chamberlain opened the first Budget of the new Government, he had first to report on the results of the work of the First National Government, and then to make provision for the needs of the coming year. The annual Budget statements, which we have hitherto been considering, tell us nothing about some of the most important aspects of the Government's financial policy. The Government's attitude towards works of national development at home was equally rigid and equally short-sighted. Taken as a whole, then, the financial policy of the Second National Government was short-sighted and unimaginative, and showed nothing of the grasp and vision that were needed in these difficult times.
