GOVERNMENT WAR OBLIGATIONS. (Hansard, 13 May 1919)

§ Mr. BALDWIN (Joint Financial Secretary to the Treasury)

I beg to move, That it is expedient to authorise the payment, out of moneys provided by Parliament, and, if those moneys are insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund, of such sums as may be required for giving effect to obligations incurred for the purposes of the present War or in connection therewith, by or on behalf of His Majesty's Government, and for other purposes in relation thereto, It fell to my lot some time ago to announce that there will be no more Votes of Credit, and I am very pleased to tell the Committee that this is the fifth and last War Obligations Bill which will be founded upon the Financial Resolution that I am presenting to the Committee to-night. During the War there have been already four Bills of the nature which the 1542 Government propose to introduce, serving the purpose described in the Financial Resolution, and undertaking to give effect to obligations which have been entered into for purposes connected with the War. When the Bill itself is introduced, it will be found that it consists, exactly as the previous Bills consisted, of a Clause bringing up-to-date the past unexpired obligations and introducing two new obligations which have been created since the last Bill received the Royal Assent on 8th August last. I wish to remind the Committee what the War Obligations Bill does not do. There is no power at all to enter into any fresh obligations. The War Obligations Bill only ratifies obligations which have already been entered into and which were incurred for the purposes of the War. Secondly, this is the last Bill, and all the Departments have been duly notified that no further obligations of a similar kind can be incurred and any Department which may desire to enter into such obligations will have to be dealt with in the usual way by being submitted to Parliament. The third is that there is no power in the Bill to avoid asking Parliament for whatever money may be required when the occasion arises—that is to say, if and when an obligation matures it has to come before Parliament in the shape of an Estimate.

I may now mention the two new obligations, neither of which are strangers to the Committee. The first obligation is that for the search for petroleum in this country. The total amount is £1,000,000. The agreement connected with the search for petroleum in this country was submitted to Parliament before the end of last Session and whatever money may be required for the purpose during this financial year will be submitted in the Estimate of the Ministry of Munitions. The second item is the third guarantee, amounting to £200,000, in aid of flax production. If my memory serves me, that mainly applies to Ireland. Flax production had become a matter of most vital concern towards the end of the War, when the demand for aeroplane manufacture was so great that it had become, for various reasons I need not go into on this occasion, very difficult to get any of the raw material abroad. This amount of £200,000 I am in great hopes may never have to be found, but if it, or any part of the sum, has to be found, it will be duly presented to the House on the Board of Trade Vote. I think that at this stage this is all I can usefully say, because it is all that directly concerns 1543 the Financial Resolution I am now moving. We cannot have the Bill printed and circulated until the Financial Resolution has been passed by this Committee. I propose, with the permission, of the House, as I did on the occasion of the last War Obligations Bill, in July last, to make a full statement of every outstanding obligation on the Second Reading of the Bill itself.

§ Sir D. MACLEAN

I am indebted to my hon. Friend for the statement he has made. I want to ask one question, and that is whether the Bill, when drawn, will be so drawn—as the Leader of the House intimated on the last occasion—as to allow a full debate on the question of Government expenditure. My hon. Friend will remember that was one of the undertakings which the Leader of the House gave, and the right hon. Gentleman welcomed the debate which took place. This Resolution, as my hon. Friend has said, is necessary before the Bill can be introduced. It is a purely finance Bill, which cannot be introduced until the Resolution has been passed in Committee of Ways and Means or in this Committee. It cannot even be treated and read the first time until that has been done. Of course, it is an absolutely necessary process in this kind of Bill. One might be led into a general discussion on this Financial Resolution with regard to such revelations as have appeared in the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, but I am happy to spare the Committee such a discussion as that, because we have arranged through the usual channels that next week we shall have a day on which to discuss the Auditor-General's Report, which is exciting, and naturally so, considerable public interest.