§ Motion made, and Question proposed,
§ 10. "That a sum, not exceeding £10,759, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1915, for making good the Net Loss on Transactions connected with the raising of Money for the various Treasury Chests Abroad in the year 1913–14."
§ Mr. ACLANDThe Committee may remember a discussion which took place last year, I think on this occasion, when the use of the Treasury Chest Fund was critised, and when I think the assurance was given that it would not in future be used, if it could possibly be avoided, for purposes such as were then criticised. I can say that in the year which is now under consideration the Treasury Chest Fund was not used for any purpose except to provide money for the payment of soldiers and so on in foreign stations. The use of the fund was confined entirely during the year to its recognised and exact purpose. We have, this year, nothing to explain or to justify. The hon. Member opposite is interested, and I wish to give him an assurance to that effect. Another point I want to make is this: The deficiency 186 that is to be made up annually is due, as the Committee knows, largely to the loss that very often arises in valuation, owing to the difference between the purchase and sale price of the Hong Kong dollar. A Treasury Committee was appointed to go into that some years ago. Over that Committee the hon. Member for one of the Divisions of Lanarkshire presided. The Report of that Committee has been put into operation, and it is expected that when the new regulations under that Report come into proper operation, the loss will to some extent be avoided. The recommendations of that Committee only came into operation as from 1st January, 1914. Therefore there is still an amount to be made up to keep up the total sum of the Treasury Chest Fund to £700,000 for 1913–14. For this we are now asking the House.
§ Question put, and agreed to.