BRITISH EXCHEQUER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 207, 3 August 1931, Page 8

BRITISH EXCHEQUER

3 P.M. EDITION

NATIONAL EXPENDITURE REDUCTIONS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received August 3. 12 noon. RUGBY, Aug. 1. The report of the committee appointed to consider a reduction in the national expenditure was only issued late yesterday afternoon, and the newspapeis are inclined to reserve detailed criticisms until after further study and confine themselves to comments of a general kind. "The majority proposals for economies totalling £96,500,000 are,” says the Times, "drastic and challenging, and alter calculating that £83,500,000 of the savings are to be effective on unemployment insurance, education, road maintenance development and only £8.000,000 over the whole of the rest of public expenditure, the broad conclusion, therefore, is a repetition of the old lesson that economy depends on policy.” The 3lorning Post says: —“Whether all the suggestions advocated are feassible in their ‘entirety or not, the great merit of the report is that it reveals the scope of the problems without fear or favour and makes suggestions which provide an invaluable starting point, for discussion.” The Manchester Guardian thinks that the savings broadcast are substantially greater than those attained in the German Budget by Dr. Bruening's emergency decrees, which were reckoned as a ’highwater mark in retrenchment when they were promulgated. The newspaper thinks the estimate of the savings to be effected by the proposals probably over-sanguine in some phases. The papers generally discount the possibility of a National or a Coalition Government in the autumn to deal with the economy question, which has been discussed in some quarters.