§ MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)I beg to ask the Prime Minister if he has observed that, in presenting his Report on the Army Budget to the French Chamber of Deputies last week, Monsieur Gervais showed that Russia, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, the United States, 1431 and Japan, spend every year £207,000,000 on preparations for war; and can he give the equivalent figure for Great Britain.
§ MR. ASQUITHI have no information as to the data on which the Estimate referred to by my hon. friend was based. As he is, no doubt, aware the absence of a common standard of calculation tends to vitiate comparisons drawn between the warlike expenditure of one country and another, and any Estimate that purported to give the equivalent figure of the expenditure on armaments undertaken by this country would, for this reason, be misleading.