BUDGET SURPLUS IN CANADA

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26394, 12 April 1951, Page 8

BUDGET SURPLUS IN CANADA

Huge Expenditure On Defence

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) OTTAWA, April 10. Canada had a Budget surplus of 203.456,000 Canadian dollars for the financial year ended March 31. It was the fifth successive surplus since the end of the Second World War. The Minister of Finance (Mr Douglas Abbott) in a report to the House of Commons to-night estimated revenue for the year at 3,105,300,000 dollars. Mr Abbott made these points: (1) The rearmament programme might revive the dollar exchange problem to some extent in the financial year ending March 31, 1952, but it no longer dominates the economic scene as it did two or three years ago.

(2) Gross national production, net national income, personal expenditures on consumer goods and services, gross capital investment, and wages and other labour income were about 7 or 8 per cent, higher in the financial year ended March 31, .than in the previous year. (3) A manpower problem is likely to develop during the current financial year, but it is not likely to take the form of a serious overall labour shortage. (4) The Government is not prepared to embark on a premature programme of direct controls which under present conditions would create more confusion than stability. (5) During the financial year ended March 31 Canada made available to the North Atlantic Pact countries military equipment worth 195,000,000 dollars. (6) Canadian defence expenditures more than doubled to a total of 773,000,000 dollars and represented a quarter of all expenditures for the year.

RUSSIAN TROOP MOVEMENTS

U.S. REFERENCE TO WAR DANGER

WASHINGTON, April 9. Mr Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said to-day: “I know we are in terrible danger, because the Russians are concentrating troops here, there, and everywhere.” He added: “How many, and where, is a little out of my field, but I know it is being done.” Mr Raybum made this statement to reporters after a conference with President Truman. Mr Raybum said in the House last week that not all the troops gathering in Manchuria were Chinese Communists, and added that the United States was threatened by a terrible danger which might bring on another world war.

Mr Rayburn had been -speaking during a debate on a controversy! bill which seeks to lower the drafting age and increase the period of military service.

Mr Rayburn, in answer to a question to-day, said that those who attributed his remarks in the House to an attempt to pass the Draft Bill had “a damned low estimate” of what he was trying to say.

SAILOR’S DEATH ON FRIGATE

MAN TO BE TRIED IN PAKISTAN

SYDNEY, April 10. The naval authorities aboard the Pakistan frigate Sind have refused to hand over to detectives a sailor who allegedly killed a shipmate. They say that under international law the vessel is extra-territorial, though she is anchored off Garden Island in Sydney Harbour in the. course of a goodwill visit to Australia. The sailor, aged 23, is under a heavy guard in the warship's brig. The dead man, Nemat Ali, aged 22, died aboard the ship about an hour after a brawl on Sunday night Detectives called to the ship by officers found a stab wound near All's heart, and took possession of a knife. The detectives say that they met with opposition from the Pakistan seamen and that the ship’s officers advised them that the Australian police had no authority to take action on the killing, or even to investigate it The ship’s officers now say that they will keep the man imprisoned until the ship returns to Pakistan, where he will be tried.

TIMBER EXPORTS TO N.Z.

AUSTRALIAN OFFICIAL CONCERNED

„ _ „ SYDNEY, April 10. Mr D. Stewart Fraser, executive director of the Building Industry Congress, said to-day that at a time when Australia was threatened with the greatest timber famine in her history, sawmillers were exporting millions of superficial feet of timber to New Zealand. “The virtual collapse of rail transport in the Dorrigo area has stranded more than 20,000,000 superficial feet.” he said. “Sawmillers cannot send timber to Sydney by road or sea, but they can get shipping for New Zealand and they cannot afford to store the timber." He added that the 1851 building programme was short by 80,000.000 superficial feet of timber, 150,000,000 bricks, 3,000,000 roofing tiles, and 9000 tons of galvanised iron.

PLANE DIVES INTO SEA

SIXTEEN BELIEVED DEAD . HONG KONG, April 9. A Siamese aircraft, inward bound from Bangkok, crashed into the sea near Hong Kong Island to-night in a thick fog. There were 11 passengers and a crew of five on board, and officials fear that all have been lost. The aeroplane, which belonged to the, Siamese Airways Company. Ltd., radioed at 8 3 p.m.: “No more gas ” Fog prevented the aircraft, which was a C 47, from landing at Hong Kong when it arrived early in the afternoon It flew to Taipeh (Formosa), but was unable to land there. It then headed for an airfield in Southern Formosa, and finding itself still unable to land, returned to Hong Kong, arriving with only about half an hour's fuel left. Naval craft and police boats are speeding to the rescue. AH the crew were Siamese, and the passengers were mostly Chinese. An eye-witness reported seeing the aircraft blow up as it dived into the sea. SHIP’S CREW FINED FOR STRIKING MELBOURNE, April 10 Twenty-two striking members of the crew of the British freighter, Kaipaki, who appeared in Court to-day, paid fines and costs of more than £lBO, but said they would not take the ship to sea until alterations were made to the mess quarters. The Kaipaki recently arrived from the United States with a cargo of timber. The striking members of the crew y veT *. charged with wilfully disobeymaster's lawful command, comhinmg with others to impede the proand with the conte?^^mXi. ISObCdient<! the mas ’