BRITAIN'S EXPENDITURE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 248, 21 October 1942, Page 5

BRITAIN'S EXPENDITURE

40 PER CENT. IN CASH. TOTAL TO DATE £12.050,000,000.

B.O.W.

RUGBY, Oct. 20.

Moving a supplementary vote of credit of £1,000,000,000 for the war, Sir Kingsley Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer, first welcomed the visit of Mr Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the United States Treasury, who stood very high in the councils of the United Nations. The new vote of credit, said the Chancellor, would make a total of £4,000,000,000 this year and. £12,050,000,000 since the oucbreak of war. Since September 9 the average daily war expenditure had gone up £500,000 a day and was now £32,750,000 daily, including £10,500,000 on fighting and supply services. The Chancellor said that the credit now asked for, together with the balance remaining from the £1,000,000,000 voted in September, should last until February. "It is possible that we have now passed the period of striking increases in the rate of war expenditure," said the Chancellor. "However, this does not mean that the problem of financing the war on sound lines will take an easier turn or that we can relax any of our efforts. On the contrary, as the war progresses and we exhaust accumulated nest-eggs and other capital sums available for investment, we wTill have to use other means of re~ placing them. In "this still greater savings from current income and still greater economies in the absolute avoidance of all wasteful expenditure must take a high place. A decent, proper standard of living is obviously essential, but if we insisted on spending for spending's sake, instead of saving to the greatest extent possible, we would endanger the sound economic structure." Comparing the half-year ended September 30 with the last year, the Chancellor said: "Although expenditure is higher by £50,000.000, the amount we had to borrow was £70,000,000 less. This was partly due to the receipt of £155,000,000 on account of the Canadian Government's generous contribution, but was mainly due to the higher and unprecedented level of taxation Revenue is doing very well both absolutely and by comparison with last year. The total volume of personal saving is increasing quarter by quarter." Sir Kingsley Wood announced a decision to make a supplementary issue of savings certificates in January at a definitely lower rate of interest. The purchase price would be £1 value and would increase to £1 3s after ten years, equivalent to an overall interest at the rate of £1 8s 2d per cent. tax free. The Chancellor added: "We are entering the fourth year of the war with little cause for dissatisfaction at the financial position. The total expenditure from 1939 to 1942 is about two and a-half times as great as from 1914-17, but the amount raised by taxation is four times as much, representing 40 per cent. of the expenditure, compared with 21 per cent. in the last war. Moreover, the average rate of interest on the increase in debt so far this war has been only 2£ per cent. compared with 5 per cent. last war."