§ 47. Mr. Thurtleasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware of the recent public statement of the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence to the effect that the expenditure on the rearmament schemes would be considerably more than the figure announced in Parliament when the proposals were approved; and whether this statement represents the policy of the Government?
§ The Prime MinisterI assume that the hon. Member refers to the statement made by my right hon. Friend indicating that the total Defence expenditure in the ensuing financial year is likely to be substantially higher than in the current year. The hon. Member is not, however, justified in assuming from this statement that the total cost of the Rearmament Programme will be in excess of the figure given in the White Paper on Defence Expenditure presented to Parliament in February of this year (Cmd. 5374), in which it was stated that it would be imprudent to contemplate a total expenditure on Defence during the next five years of much less than £1,500,000,000. It was never contemplated by His Majesty's Government that the Defence Programme would result in an even spread of expenditure over the five years in respect of which borrowing powers have been authorised under the Defence Loans Act. Indeed, a clear indication was given in paragraph 41 of the White Paper referred to that expenditure in the ensuing two years would be much heavier than in 1936 and would rise to a peak figure.