§ MR. BUCHANAN (Perthshire, E.)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the total expenditure from Imperial funds since the conclusion of the war in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony on non-military purposes, and from what sources, Estimates or loan, has it been provided; how much of this expenditure is in the nature of temporary advances, to be recouped out of the proposed guaranteed loan, and how much is free gift.
(Answered by Mr. Ritchie.) The total expenditure on purposes unconnected with the war and non-military consists of the £8,000,000 voted as a grant-in-aid of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony last autumn, and provided from the Estimates, 1902–3, viz., £3,000,000, the sum required for free grants to burghers to assist their restoration to their homes, as provided in Article 10 of the terms of surrender; £2,000,000, the sum required for grants to other persons in respect of war losses in the two Colonies; and £3,000,000, the sum required for loans to be advanced by the Colonial Governments to supplement the above grants. Of these sums the first two are a free gift and the last is an advance to be recovered from the guaranteed loan. This does not include expenditure on compensation, which may be considered military in character.