PROFITEERING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14100, 19 April 1920, Page 5

PROFITEERING.

BY BRITISH CABINET. STRONG CRITICISM. Press Association —Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received Monday, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, Saturday. In the House of Commons, Mr. J. F. Hope, in introducing the Ministry for Munitions estimates, stated that at the end of the financial year the Ministry would have handed the Exchequer £190,000,000 for the relief of the taxpayer and the reduction of the debt. £40,000,000 worth of stores in France had -been sold, while £25.000,000 worth still remain. .As .-regards the War Office’s contract with Australia, which was extended to the year after the war, supplies are still coming in. There has been a-profit of £150,000,000 upon all articles excepting wool. Under the wool contract for the l year ended March 3rd,' 1919, tlie profit was about £3,000,000 for Britain,''£2,ooo, 000 for Australia, and over £600,000 for New Zealand, and for the current year lie.hoped the figures would be doubled. As regards the later period, tlie whole series of transactions would undoubtedly give the most substantial profit, part of which will go to Australia and New Zealand in term's of the contract. The Ministry was not being turned into a Ministry of Supply, and would end by the statutory date.

After strong criticisms of alleged extravagance by the Department, the vote of £27,000,000 for the Ministry of Munitions was temporarily withdrawn, the Government hoping'to submit the revised estimates in June.