Rome, Dec. 14.
'A total sum of 10,000,000,000 lire has been earmarked for the development, and the speeding up, of Italian armaments.
An official statement, in which this Agure was revealed, says that the step was an "inevitably necessity, owing to the present world situation." meeting of the Cabinet Council this morning, under the presidency of Il Duce. The Budget for 1999/1940 was [approved at this meeting.
Only four-fifths of this huge sum is included in the estimates—the remaining one-fifth will be kept in hand, and used according to the necessities of the moment, It is thus estimated that the expen-Jditure for 1039-1949 will exceed the Jcurrent year's estimates by nearly 2,600,000,000 lire but, if it is above the tone-fifth included, the latter will be Jexceeded by over 4,000,000,000 lire.
The current year's estimates were, on the other hand, exceeded by an Jextra 21 per cent, expenditure, which Jamounted to 7,000,000,000 lire.
'The total revenue' was estimated at 24,500,000,000 lire, and the expendi~ ture nearly 29,500,000,000 lire.
The only new tax to be imposed is a levy on private businesses, an~ nounced last month, which should raise nearly 1,260,000,000 lire—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.