§ I am sorry to detain the Committee so long, but I am coming now to a matter of general importance, the estimated revenue and expenditure of the year. Hon. Members will turn to the table of figures I have supplied to the Committee. That shows the estimated expenditure for the current year to be £152,869,000. The estimated expenditure for the current year exceeds last year's estimate by £367,000, and exceeds the actual issues of last year by £1,057,000. The first item that calls for remark is the reduction under the heading Consolidated Fund Services of £1,500,000, which means the difference between the special sum of £29,500,000 last year appropriated for Debt and the statutory figure of £28,000,000 fixed by the right hon. Gentleman opposite to which we now revert. Apart from that automatic reduction the estimated ex-expenditure shows an increase of £1,867,000. The items of increase are almost entirely due to the Navy and the Post Office, each of which contributes about £900,000, or one-half of the total net increase. The Committee is quite familiar with the causes which have led to the increase in the Navy Vote; and in the Post Office service the increase is about half due to the automatic and inevitable growth of expenditure and the remaining half to the recommendations of the Committee presided over by the present Secretary to the Treasury. The ultimate cost of those improvements is calcuated to amount to £700,000 a year. Large as this additional expenditure is, I do not myself consider it an undue price to pay for an authoritative settlement of the outstanding grievances of so large a body of Government servants. The other items call for no special remark.