Chancellor of Exchequer Announces Pending Request for Five-Year £400,000,000 Maximum Credit London, Feb. 11.
REAR Britain's determination to build up her fighting strength was made clear in the House of Commons to-day when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, announced an impending national defence loan of a maximum: amount of £400,000,000 over five years.
The announcement. which took the House by surprise, was made in reply to a question by Mr. C. R. Attlee, leader of the Labour Opposition, about the financing of defence expenditure.
Mr. Chamberlain said the Government proposed forthwith to introduce a bill authorizing the raising of capital, or alternatively the use of any realized budget surpluses, for defence purposes—the total amount so raised not to exceed £400,000,000 over five years.
Provision would be made annually in the defence votes for interest on the debt and also, after the end of the borrowing period, for redemption of the loan within thirty years.
The Chancellor referred to his last Budget speech when he foreshadowed.the necessity for a defence loan.
"The general experience of the past twelve months, which have in' way relieved "the urgency of our heavy task nor lightened the cost of raising our forces to the proper standard of defensive strength, has, only confirmed the judgment of the situation which 1 then formed," Mr. Chamberlain declared.
Defence expenditure was growing at a pace which made it impossible to meet it entirely out of revenue, Neither the total amount' required, nor the period over which it must bbe spread, could at present be prelected. Flexibility and adaptation to changing circumstances must be the esgonce of the programme, phasize eessity for Treasury The Chancellor went on to em-
control over expenditure of the loan. The authority sought, he explained, would not authorize the defence departments to spend any money, and therefore the whole of the proposed defence expenditure would continue to be laid before Parliament The necessary Ananelal resolution, together with a White Paper, would be tabled without delay, Mr. Cham
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.