§ I have given the figures with regard to our averse trade, balance, and I now come to another feature. The national indebtedness is another disquieting feature. Before the War our National Debt was £645,000,000, and we were disturbed by it. Our interest and Sinking Fund was £24,500,000. To-day our National Debt is £7,800,000,000. Against that we have the indebtedness of the Allies and the Dominions, and India, of £1,800,000,000, but the interest and Sinking Fund together would amount to £400,000,000. That is our debt, and instead of costing £24,000,000 it will involve an annual charge of £400,000,000. Pensions, an absolutely new charge, amount to £100,000,000 per annum. I am going to say something about finance later on, but I want for the purposes of a review of the position to assume that you cut the cost of the Army and Navy down to the lowest figure any sane person can figure. Assume that for the moment. Still the pay is 1986 treble, the cost of material is double, and whatever you may cut down to within the limits of safety, the cost must be enormously increased. Before the War it was £80,000,000. Then there is another factor. A good deal has been said about public expenditure, but there is not nearly enough said about private expenditure, which in the aggregate is a much more formidable figure. I say nothing of the expenditure due to a rational uplifting of the standard of living, but there is another expenditure which would not be justified under the circumstances of the moment. There seems a temptation to rush into prodigality, and I should not be doing my duty in reviewing the position of things unless I alluded to that.