CHURCHILL CAUSES UPROAR BY ATTACK ON FINANCES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22868, 11 February 1949, Page 5

CHURCHILL CAUSES UPROAR BY ATTACK ON FINANCES

(10 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Winston Churchill, warned Mr. Herbert Morrison, President of the Council in the House of Commons, that, the Opposition might think it necessary to set down a vote of censure on “gross financial mismanagement” which was illustrated by the Government’s table of supplementary estimates totalling £221,000,000.

Mr. Churchill spoke forcefully*through the hubbub of Labour cries of dissent. He said the presentation of the supplementary estimates equalling about a quarter of the total pre-war Budget was an event without precedent in peacetime. They represented the “most wild miscalculations on the part of the estimating authorities.” Mr. Churchill’s determination to be heard increased as the uproar grew louder from the Government benches. “I can undcrslond Mr. Aneurin Bevan’s touchiness,” he said. “Mr. . Bevan wants a supplementary account of £58,000,000 to pay the increased costs of the national health service. ( Amid the clamour of voices from the Labour seats Mr. Churchill asked for three days to be set aside to debate , the estimates, but Mr. Morrison re- 1 plied it was entirely the Opposition's i affair how they used the five days at their disposal for various debates.