£10,000 MILLION

Evening Star, Issue 24296, 10 September 1942, Page 5

£IO,OOO MILLION

GOST OF WAR TO DATE CHANCELLOR S REVIEW ; (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. noon.) RUGBY, Sept. 9. Asking for the grant of a further vote of credit of £1,000,000,000 for the prosecution of the war, Sir Kingsley Wood informed the House of Commons that the war had so far cost £10,000,000,000. Although the war savings niovimunt had been a great success, over £4,000,000,000 having been raised, there was urgent necessity for further reduction of personal expenditure, or the strong financial front would bo jeopardised. The new credit asked for, said Sir Kingsley, made a total of £3.000,000,000 for votes of credit during the financial year and a total of £11,050,000,000 since the beginning of the war. During recent weeks our war expenditure averaged £12,250,000 daily, made up of £10,250,000 ..on the fighting and supply services, and £2,000,000 ou other miscellaneous war services. Compared with June, these figures showed an increase of half a million daily on fighting and supply services, which continued steadily to increase in this vital part of the cost of the war. But as we approached nearer to the full use of our capacity or production, the rate of expenditure did not continue to increase as rapidly as it had done in the past. The total budget expenditure had grown from £3.884,000,000 in 1940-41 to an estimated £5,286,000,000 for the current year. The increase in the physical war effort was shown by the fact that, whereas in 1940 the Government expenditure on goods and services absorbed 44 per cent, of the national resources, the corresponding figure for 1942 would prohalbly be about 54 per pent. Whereas we financedi by taxation 35 per cent, out of the total budget expenditure in 1940-41, this year we were finding in taxation 45 per cent, of an expenditure which had- increased by one-third on the 1940 figures. Our taxation policy, said Sir Kingsley, had been much more drastic this war than last, and certainly had been of inestimable benefit in counteracting inflationary tendencies, , Dealing with war savings, the Chancellor outlined the success of the national savings certificates scheme. There was no ground) for complacency, however, he said. There was still urgent necessity and scope for further reduction of personal expenditure, and more saving. If we failed t<> do this we were jeopardising the strong financial front we had built, and also prejudicing our hopes and prospects for the postwar period. The great and successive sums Parliament voted! for war should be regarded as a contribution to tho common pool of the United Nations. Lease-Lend, as Mr Roosevelt said, got rid of the dollar sign. By that single stroke the policy of the whole war finance between the United Nations was placed on a new basis. We had not been backward in following the example. We furnished military supplies to our Allies, Russia and China, without question of payment, and now Lease-Lend itself was no longer one way. The American forces in Britain asked for accommodation, supplies, labour, and transport, and we gave that as reciprocal aid. They received what they needed in the British dominions and colonies, and the British shipping was at their disposal. To use Mr Roosevelt s words, we were { aiming at a distribution of the financial costs the war which would mean that no nation would grow rich from the war effort of its Allies. The money cost of the war would fall according to the rule of equality of sacrifice and of effort. EVENTS IN FRANCE RETAIN ACCUSED OF DICTATORSHIP DEPORTATION OF JEWS CONTINUES LONDON, September 9. M Edouard Herriott, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and Senator Jules Jeanneney, President of the Senate, sent a joint letter to Marshal Petuin and M. Laval accusing Marshal Petain of assuming an unlimited dictatorship, says the British United Press correspondent on the French frontier. The letter said: “ Without the authorisation of Parliament you try’to draw France into war against our allies, which you yourself declared honour forbids. We, by this letter, protest in advance in the name of our national sovereignty. Our country will not follow you along the path you are trying to take.” Deputies from Alsace-Lorraine met secretly at Vichy and decided to protest to Marshal Petain and Laval against tho conscription. of residents of Alsace-Lor-raine into tho German army and the labour corps. The Germans in occupied Franco have ordered the drafting to Germany of anyone unemployed by the compulsory 54-hour week. The British United Press says to replace Axis' shipping lost, principally in the Mediterranean, Herr Abetz has demanded from Vichy 200,000 tons of shipping, including 70,000 which belonged to Belgium, Holland, Greece, and Yugoslavia. The Vichy authorities, it is believed, have not yet acceded to the demand, arguing that the armistice does not cover such action. The Vichy correspondent of the Zurich newspaper. ‘ National Zeitung,’ reports that tho arrests and deportation of immigrant Jews in France are not only continuing, but are being intensified. Categories of foreign Jews who wore still exempt in the first half of August are now being deported, including children. Heartrending scenes are occurring. RIMER SUPPUES . VJSST INDIAN RESOURCES FULLY TAPPED (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. noon.) RUGBY. September 9. Lord Cranborne. in tho House of Commons, said alt the available resources of rubber in British Guinn and other West Indian territories were being tapped. He added that tho raw rubber from these areas would be exported exclusively to the United States . THE DIEPPE ACTION CANADIAN CASUALTIES OTTAWA, September 9. Tho Army Department has issued the j twenty-third casualty list since the Dieppe raid, making a total of 917 casualties believed to be attributable to the Dieppe action. The department reported that 1.073 were killed or missing =ince the start of the war.