HUGE COST OF WAR TO BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 33, 8 February 1941, Page 5

HUGE COST OF WAR TO BRITAIN

£10,500,000 A DAY SUPPLEMENTARY VOTE ASKED FOR GOVERNMENT SPENDING £12,250,000 DAILY [ British Official Wireless. ] RUGBY, Feb. 6. Figures which he said were striking proof of Britain's determination to prosecute the war with all might, energy, and speed were given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Kingsley Wood, in the House of Commons when he asked for £1,000,000,000 on a vote of credit for the financial year 1941-42, and also for a supplementary vote of 1600,000,000 for the current financial year. Daily expenditure, he said, which a year ago was 15,000,000, was now more than 110,500,000—18,000,000 for the fighting services and 12,500,000 for other war services. Daily expenditure, therefofe, was more than doubled in a year and increased by nearly £1,500,000 since he asked for the supplementary vote. Sir Kingsley Wood said: “This, with some margin for contingencies, should cover us until the end of the present financial year.” The Chancellor revealed that including services of State other than war services Britain was spending at the rate of about £12,250,000 a day. All these matters, the Chancellor emphasised, offered anxious consideration. Civilian consumption would continue to be curtailed, and every penny possible would be saved and lent to the State. The Government, added Sir Kingsley Wood, was very much alive to the danger of inflation and would not hesitate to take every practical step to control the danger should it ever arise.