General correspondence on the resignation of [George] Peter Thorneycroft as Chancellor of the Exchequer, with JEP's resignation as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and [Evelyn] Nigel Birch [later Lord Rhyl]'s resignation as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, 6 January 1958, over the Government's policy on spending cuts. Correspondents include: Sir Dennis Robertson [Member of Council on Prices, Productivity and Incomes] on the Council's reports and the economic situation (8); Reginald Seconde; Lord Sandon [later 7th Lord Harrowby]; Baroness Elliot of Harwood; Hugh Gaitskell [Leader of the Labour Party]; Alan Lennox-Boyd [Secretary of State for the Colonies, later Lord Boyd]; Julian Ridsdale; Edmund Compton [Third Secretary, Treasury]; Michael Strachan; John Marshall [Principal, Treasury]; Thomas Iremonger; [Aubrey] Geoffrey Rippon; Toby Low [later 1st Lord Aldington]; Sir Henry Hancock [Chairman, Board of Inland Revenue]; Harold Prynne; Edgar Kingston-McCloughry; 1st Lord Mackintosh of Halifax, Chairman of the National Savings Committee; Kenneth Lewis; 2nd Lord Broughshane [earlier Patrick Davison]; Peter Tapsell; James Greenwood; [?] John Hughes-Hallett; Charlie Broad; Sir Frank Lee, Permanent Secretary, Board of Trade; Duncan Duncan-Sandys, Minister of Defence; [?] Iain Macleod; [Bruce] Bernard Weatherill; Sir James Crombie [Chairman, Board of Customs and Excise]; Jasper Rootham [Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England]; William Whitelaw [Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer]; Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister [later 1st Lord Stockton], acknowledging JEP's letter of resignation (2); [Alfred] John Winnifrith [Third Secretary, Treasury].

Also includes: note by Sir Dennis Robertson on controlling inflation and spending; notes by JEP on the reasons for the resignations and on Government spending estimates for 1958-9; notes for a speech by JEP to his constituency, 9 January 1958; draft letters from JEP to Birch on the Government's refusal to agree to cuts, February 1957, and to Thorneycroft on the pleasure of working with him; copies of Thorneycroft, Birch and JEP's letters of resignation.