THE COST OF WAR.
BRITAIN’S EXPENDITURE. , FIVE MILLIONS A DAY. LONDON, March 13. When the House of Commons went into Committee of Supply, the Chau-, cellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Simon), on the vote of a credit for £700,000,000 for wartime expenditure gave several details df Government expenditure on the war. He recalled that on September 1 the House authorised the vote of a credit of £500,000,000 to cover the outlay which was likely to be increased in the near future. Up to ‘March 9 the amount spent out of this sum was in the neighbourhood of £300,000,000 and “so far as one could see at the end of the financial year there would probably be short spending of something between £70,000,000 and £100,000,000 out of the £500,000,000 authorised.’ 7 Sir John Simon revealed that the expenditure on, the three defence services and the Ministry of Supply at present was at the rate of • nearly £4,000,000 daily while the war services coming within the scope of the vote of credit—the A.R.P., shipping, food and evacuation—were spending at the rate of some £1,000,000 daily. “Taking the whole war expenditure together covered by this vote, we are at present incurring a rate of expenditure close on £5,000,000 daily,” he said. “That will give some indication of how long £700,0,00,000 may be expected to last.” The vote of a credit was not available for other Government expenditure, which should be added in order to envisage the total amount the Government was spending. Making a rough calculation of the total, Sir John Simon suggested a figure .of* £6,500,000 daily. British Official Wireless.
HUGE FRENCH VOTE, PARIS, March 14. The Financial Committee of the Chamber of Deputies voted £330,000,000 for national defence for the second quarter of 1940, of which £17,000,000 is for the cost of construction and supplies of new war material. The rest is for the fighting forces. ITALIAN BUDGETS. ROME, March 14. The Chamber •of Fascists voted £94,700,000 for the army and navy budgets.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 132, 15 March 1940, Page 5
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333THE COST OF WAR. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 132, 15 March 1940, Page 5
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