Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what percentage of the national income is at present devoted by his Department to raising the living standards of people in the under-developed parts of the Colonial Territories.
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§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd:It is estimated that curing the current year a sum of the order of £100 million will be made available from United Kingdom sources for expenditure in Colonial Territories which will either directly or indirectly raise the living standards of those territories. Of this amount public funds are expected to contribute about half. The total represents 0.6 per cent. of the national income of the United Kingdom in 1957. This is for the Colonies only; our total contribution to economic development in the Commonwealth as a whole is nearly 1¼ per cent. of our national income.