HC Deb 19 April 1904 vol 133 cc556-7

What are the prospects of the present year? I take expenditure first. The Consolidated Fund charges, including the fixed debt charge, amount to £29,800,000. The Supply services embodied in the Estimates amount to £112,580,000, or, together, £142,380,000. But to these figures I have to add some provision on account of Somaliland, for which, as the Committee know, nothing was taken in the Estimates. Of course the announcement made by the Secretary for War is fresh in the recollection of the Committee, but still, although the active military operations have come to an end, we must, I fear, face a considerable charge. There are heavy terminal charges in the first place. We have then to make provision for such forces or garrisons as it may be necessary to leave in the country. After consultation with my right hon. friend, I fix the whole amount to be provided for Somaliland in the present year at £500,000, which he believes to be a safe figure. That brings the total expenditure charged to the revenue account of the Exchequer to £142,880,000. In addition the State will collect and pay over in relief of local charges a sum estimated at £9,696,000, and it will incur fresh capital expenditure, for the purposes for which, as already explained, the spending departments are authorised to borrow, to an amount estimated at £10,000,000. The last figure is provisional. I am still in communication with the spending departments on the subject. It will not in any case be exceeded, and I hope that, without causing any serious interruption to work now in progress, it may be possible still further to reduce it. That includes Military and Naval Works and expenditure on telephone extension.