§ Having dealt with the fortunes of the year, I ought to give the Committee some indication of the Debt position. The surplus of revenue over expenditure in 1921–22, as I have said, was£45,693,000. This has been applied to reduction of debt, together with£25,000,000 which was included for debt reduction on the expenditure side of the Budget. Adding to these sums certain other repayments, such as reduction of the Civil Contingencies Fund, the total applied to the Debt reduction in the year was£88,466,000. So much for what we have done in reducing debt during the year. How did it leave the total of dead-weight Debt? The maximum figure reached by the deadweight National Debt of the country was on 31st December, 1919, when it amounted to the huge total of£7,998,000,000. By the 31st March, 1921, this figure had been reduced to£7,574,358,000. The corresponding figure on the 31st March, 1922, was, as near as I can estimate it,£7,654,500,000. The increase during the year in the nominal debt was£80,142,000. The explanation of the fact that there has been an increase in the nominal total, in spite of the devotion of large sums to the redemption of debt, is, of course, that the issue of 3½ per cent. Conversion Loan brought up the nominal total of the debt while it did not in any way increase the real burden. In point of fact, the real burden of the debt has been decreased considerably in the course of the year, not merely by the payments in cash of sums for redemption, but also because of the change in character, so much so that, apart from the special provisions for the interest on our debt to 1025 the United States of America, to which I shall refer later, it has been found possible to reduce the Estimates for interest and management of debt in 1922–23 by£17,000,000, as compared with the Estimate for 1921–22.
§ Mr. ASQUITHWhat is the total?
§ Sir R. HORNE£335,000,000. While, therefore, we cannot point to any reduction in the nominal total of debt during 1921–22, we have considerable reason for satisfaction in the improvements effected both as regards internal debt and external debt, with which I shall now proceed to deal.