MONEY FOR DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 February 1939, Page 7

MONEY FOR DEFENCE

BRITISH CHANCELLOR’S PROPOSALS PROVISION FOR FURTHER BORROWING. GREAT EXPANSION SHOWN. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Receivad This Day, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, February 15. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Sinton, announced in' the House of Commons that he was introducing a Bill, increasing from the present limit of £400.000,000 to £800,000,000 the amount which may be borrowed for defence during the five year period ending in March, 1942. He recalled that last November he intimated that some increase would be needed on the £400.000,000 authorised by the Defence Loans Act, 1937. The outlay on rearmament met out of borrowed money up to the present, was just under £200,000,000. so that the result of the Bill he proposed to introduce would be to provide authority for future borrowing for defence of just over £600,000,000. He proposed to include among the purposes for which further defence loans might be used, expenditure on civil defence, and the purchase of food and other essential commodities. There will be a House of Commons debate on the defence programme as a whole on Monday and Tuesday next. A White Paper, which Mr Neville Chamberlain promised the House of Commons will be available in advance of the defence debate, was issued tonight. It reveals that the total estimates for the three defence departments in the next financial year will be some £523,000,000, and the total defence expenditure, including expenditure on civil defence will be in the neighbourhood of £580,000,000. This compares with the expenditure of the three defence departments in 1937 of about £262.000,000 and in the current financial year of about £388.000,000.