§ 4.0 P.M.
§ I now come to the balance-sheet for the present year. The estimate of expenditure this year, on the assumption that the National Debt charges are fixed at the same amount as last year, comes to £195,640,000—a very colossal figure. I think I am entitled to call attention to the fact that out of this very gigantic sum there are three or four items which are very largely in the nature of capital expenditure. For instance, take naval works. We are voting £3,500,000 this year to naval works. Of that, £1,000,000 is in respect of works for which, before the change in policy effected by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, we should have borrowed. We are similarly providing £500,000 from 264 Army Votes for works of the same category. Then again, oil fuel reserve services are just over £1,000,000. I am not referring now to expenditure on oil which is to be used in the course of the current year, I am simply dealing with reserve, capital as it were, of our oil service. Then there is £1,000,000 which is due to under-spending in the previous year, and has been thrown upon the Admiralty in the course of the present year. There are two items of a capital character, and the other one which is under-spending, properly belonging to last year, and we shall have to bear the burden in the course of the current year.
§ One hundred and ninety-five million pounds is undoubtedly a very startling figure, and I think it is very natural and necessary that it should excite a good deal of comment and inquiry. Expenditure has rushed up at a very alarming rate in practically every country throughout the world. The main cause of the increase undoubtedly in this and other countries is attributable to the growth of military and naval armaments; it is also due, to a very large extent, to the growing appreciation of the obligations which the community owes as a whole in respect of the health, the comfort, and the training and the amenities of individual citizens. If the Committee will extend to me their indulgence I should rather like to examine a little more closely this growth of expenditure. The increase in figures are striking, but what is much more remarkable and significant is the change in the character of the expenditure.