§ Mr. Gaitskell59, 60 and 61. asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the estimate at the Sydney Conference of £200 million as the surplus expected for the sterling area in 1953–54 includes defence aid or capital imports; and how much of it is a dollar surplus;
(2) whether he will explain the relation ship of the £400 million surplus for the sterling area in 1952–53 mentioned in the Sydney Conference Communiqué to the increase of £243 million in the gold and dollar reserves during the same period;
(3) to what extent the £400 million surplus for the sterling area in 1952–53 mentioned in the Sydney Conference Communiqué includes either defence aid or capital imports.
§ Mr. MaudlingHon. Members will realise that I am not in a position to publish details of sterling area transactions as compiled for Commonwealth Finance Ministers beyond the information which they collectively agreed to put in the Communiqué of the Sydney Conference, which did not include a forecast for 1953–54. The surplus of over £400 million in 1952–53 is broadly comparable with the sum of items 17, 26 and 27 of Cmd. 8976, which includes defence aid and capital receipts by other sterling area countries. The surplus did not produce a corresponding rise in the reserves since the United Kingdom had certain capital transactions to meet. The main examples of this were repayments of debt to E.P.U., the U.S.A. and Canada, and the drawing down of sterling balances by non-sterling countries.