A letter in The Times on April 4 recalled Stanley Baldwin’s donation of one fifth of his wealth to the Treasury in 1919 as “a thank-offering” for victory in the First World War, the cost of which had added enormously to the national debt.
Baldwin, the man who invented the term “One Nation” and was then Financial Secretary to the Treasury, made his generous gesture known through a famous anonymous letter toThe Times signed FST on June 24 1919.
He called on wealthy people throughout the country to “impose upon themselves, each as he is able, a voluntary levy…It should be possible to pay to the Exchequer within twelve months such a sum as would save the tax payer 50 millions a year.”
Baldwin’s donation amounted to some £120,000. Other contributions took the total sum subscribed to £500,000 – a mere fraction of his target.
The recent Times letter in praise of Baldwin asked: “could his actions be emulated today, thus reducing, even in a small way, the financial shackles faced by generations to come?” The writer of the letter, Penny Marland, is married to Lord (Jonathan) Marland, a man of considerable wealth who was Treasurer of the Conservative Party from 2003 to 2007. Will he respond to his wife’s call and stimulate a more substantial contribution from the ranks of the richest to the national finances than Baldwin obtained?
