WAR EXPENSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 150, 26 June 1943, Page 6

WAR EXPENSES

MR. DOIDGE'S PLEA

AN EXAMINING COMMITTEE I Support for the proposal of the Le.ader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland): i that a select, committee "should be appointed, to examine: the War Ex-; penses ]A.ccbunt. was expressed by Mr. F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga) in the House of Representatives, speaking in the debate on an Imprest Supply; Bill yesterday.' . .. , , j Mr. Doidge said people always as-1 sumed that members of Parliament j were familiar with all the items of! expenditure, but that was; not ■ the. case as. far as the War Expenses Account was concerned. The.House of Com-1 mons had a committee of the kind pro-1 posed, and the Prime Minister (Mr. I Fraser) had said on one or two occasions that he was favoui-able to some- ! thing of the-kind. The public were aware that large sums of money were being spent ..and that the war was costing something', like . £150,000.000 a year. The previous war had cost less than £100,000,000 for, four years. It seemed that it was costing thirty times as much to maintain .-the war effort generally than to maintain the forces in the Middle East. He thought the explanation' was that. Ministers were inclined to use war expenses funds for purposes other than for war. GIFT TO BRITAIN? Referring to the War Damage Insurance Fund, Mr. Doidge mentioned a suggestion that'had been made thaj; the £4,000,000 in hand should be donated to Great Britain for reconstruction oi damaged homes. He said that Canada had donated one thousand million dollars in 1942 to Britain for munitions, raw. materials, and foodstuffs. New Zealand's Prime Minister had suggested that when the war was over we should send food to Greece. He was behind the Prime Minister in that proposal, but he did not think that there should be a delay until the war was over. . New ' Zealand should follow the example of Canada, which'was sending 15,000 tons of wheat a month to famine-stricken Greece. Something should also be done for the gallant little island •of Malta. MINISTER'S REPLY. ' ■ The Minister of: Finance (Mr. Nash) reminded Mr. Doidge that the ■> Leader of the Opposition • had -formerly been in charge of war expenditure, and [that, this task was still-in'the hands of a--member on the Opposition side. He. did mot; consider . that ai committee ,of i investigation could .do, effective work, as the. members would need to travel all the time. When" there was if ear of invasion waste in expenditure was inevitable but this was quickly picked up.