LONDON NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 29 October 1917, Page 5

LONDON NEWS.

NATIONAL EXPENDITURE

SELECT COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

LONDON, Oct. 26

The Parliamentary Select Committee on national expenditure has submitted an, interim report. It recommended that the general staff should be required to consider th© financial aspect when considering alternative proposals; that all army commands should be impressed with the need for effecting further economies, and that an efficient method of checking waste should be devised. The committee recommends that Cabinet and the general staff should consider whether so large a fore© of troops and Territorials is required for home service and munitions work, the cost of guarding & ppst by a single sentry being £850 annually. Brass shell cases and boxes worth several millions have been accumulated in France. The. committee strongly urges a stronger financial check at the Ministry of Munitions. The responsibility of settling the prices of munitions contracts has not yet been determined, despite its expenditure already of over £3,000,000,000.

The gross war cost to the 30th September was about £5,000,000,000, and the gros* dead-weight of national debt, after deducting advances to the Allies and the Dominions, which were £1,----321,000,000, also the war revenue, will be about £3,000,000,000. If the war expenditure and all receipts continue at the present rate, each half year will add roughly £1,000,000,000 gross to the debt, or £750,000,000, after deducting advances to the Allies and Dominions.