§ Lieut.-Colonel POWNALLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can give particulars of the arrangements made to liquidate the £8,000,000,000 of war debt in the next fifty years?
§ Mr. BALDWINIn the provisional Estimate for the normal year recently presented to the House, allowance was made for a sinking fund sufficient to liquidate the debt in a little over fifty years. Definite arrangements for this purpose will require consideration in connection with future Budgets.
§ Mr. HOGGEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether on 30th April in his Estimate for a normal year he set aside £400,000,000 for interest and sinking fund on the debt, and at the same time estimated the debt as on 31st March, 1920, at 27,685,000,000; whether in the memorandum on the future Exchequer balance sheet issued on 23rd October he set aside only £360,000,000 for interest and sinking fund, while his Estimate of the debt as on 31st March, 1920, had increased to £8,075,000,000; and whether he can explain the reduction in the amount set aside for interest and sinking fund in the second Estimate?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe Estimate of the 30th April allowed for the payment of interest and sinking fund on the gross amount of debt. If the hon. Member will look at paragraph 4 of the Memorandum prefixed to Command Paper 376 he will see that payments in respect of interest and sinking fund on debts due by or to the Governments of Allied and Associated Powers are specifically excluded in the Estimates given in that Paper. Further, a large part of the £8,075,000,000 face value is represented by 4 per Cent. Victory Loan issued at a considerable discount, whereas the calculations in April assumed1508W that additional debt to be added in the current financial year would be on a 5 per cent. basis at or near par.