HC Deb 20 November 1952 vol 507 c2040
41. Mr. Swingler

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amount of defence expenditure in the first six months of the financial year 1952–53.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

For reasons which my right hon. Friend has explained before, I cannot give a figure for part of the year which would not tend to be seriously misleading.

Mr. Swingler

If the Treasury does not know how much money is being spent in this way, how was it possible for his right hon. Friend to say, in a recent debate, that the re-armament programme was being fully maintained?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

I do not accept the premise of the first part of that supplementary, and the second part is quite another matter.