§ Mr. MANDERasked the Secretary of State for War what are the percentages of reduction in the national expenditure on military services in Great Britain, France, Italy, United States of America, Japan, and Russia, respectively, in the year 1930 compared with the expenditure in the year 1924 on a gold basis, excluding the effect of any variation which may have occurred in the purchasing power of the currency as between 1924 and 1930?
§ Mr. SHAWI have been looking carefully into the practicability of giving the hon. Member the figures for which he asks, and I have come to the conclusion that calculations which make no allowance for the purchasing power of money either inside or outside the particular country would not only serve no useful purpose but would be uninformative and misleading. It is not, I regret, possible to give figures which would make proper allowance for the variations in purchasing power.