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Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a sum not exceeding £10,000 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, 1942, for a grant in aid of the Government Hospitality Fund.
§ Captain CrookshankThis Vote is required because in the main Estimates we did not take any money for this purpose. When the Estimates for the year were being prepared, it was the height of the blitz period, and it did not then seem 1209 likely that much Government hospitality would be required, to judge from what it had been in the previous period when the figure had considerably dropped. Since this is a continuing Fund, there was a sufficient balance to cover what we then thought would be required, if those conditions continued. As hon. Gentlemen know, however, not only did those conditions not continue, but a great number of opportunities arose for His Majesty's Government to offer hospitality to distinguished persons, such as representatives of the Dominions and of Allied Governments and other delegations who came to this country. It is for that purpose that I ask the House to vote this money. I give as an example of the very great pleasure which the Government had in being able to show hospitality in this way and through this Fund, the case of the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand. There is also the case of His Majesty the King of Greece and the members of the Greek Government when they came here, and various other delegations.
§ Mr. David Adams (Consett)This Estimate indicates a decrease on last year's expenditure. Does not that represent too optimistic a view in view of the continued visits to this country of representatives from the Dominions and elsewhere?
§ Captain CrookshankI hope it does not. There is a decrease in the sense that we are taking £10,000 instead of £12,000 but, as I have said, there was a balance in the Fund at the beginning of the year. I would not like hon. Gentlemen to think from this figure that the total for the year is going to be only £10,000. That figure is the estimate plus the balance.
§ Captain CrookshankIt was somewhere in the region of £9,500.
§ Mr. Hannah (Bilston)Does any surplus go back to the general fund, or is this Fund kept altogether separate?
§ Captain CrookshankIt is kept separate, otherwise there would not be a balance of £9,500 at the beginning of the year. That does not go back into the general Government fund. It is a Hospitality Fund as such.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
1210
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Resolved,
That a sum, not exceeding £10,000, 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, 1942, for a grant in aid of the Government Hospitality Fund.