§ MR. ARTHUR LEE (Hants,) FarehamI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Army and Navy Estimates for the coming financial year have been submitted to, and reviewed concurrently by, the new Committee of Defence; and, if not, whether they will be so reviewed before being laid before this House.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (MR. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.In answer to my hon. friend I have to say that the Estimates of the year could not have been revised by the Defence Committee, because the Committee was not fully organised on its new basis early in the autumn, when the broad outlines of the Estimates had to be determined. I will go further and say that in my judgment it would not be a proper use to put the Committee of Defence to, to make them go over the details of the Estimates. No doubt the work of that Committee will have a most important effect on the view which the Government take both as regards the absolute expenditure on the Army and the Navy, and the relative expenditure upon the two services; but I do not think it would be desirable that they should have cast upon them the task which properly belongs to the Minister in charge of the Department and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
§ MR LEEMay I ask whether the relative amounts to be spent in the current year on the Navy and Amry will be considered by the committee without going into details?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have explained to my hon. friend that the Estimates for the year have to be decided in their broad lines not later than the preceding autumn, and when they were decided for the coming year the Committee of Defence had not been reorganised.
§ MR. BECKETT(York, N.R., Whitby)May I ask whether the Committee will regard the scheme on which the Estimates are framed with an open mind?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Committee would be perfectly useless if it did not approach every question with an open mind.