"He may possibly be right, Prime Minister continued, "and if nave to go on borrowing still furth after the end of the five-year, period, then of course there would be very little significance in the sinking fund which is contemplated under the original proposal of the Government.
"I cannot help looking even further: than that, because when the proc sion of the expansion of our defen: has finally been completed, we have also to look forward to the annual cost of maintenance of these increased forces."
He said it would be rash to venture upon a prophecy as to what the new cost of maintenance might reach, but when they remembered that Sir John Simon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, took the amount which may be expected to be received from revenue next year as £230,000,000, one could not help wondering whether this annual cost of maintenance and this increased programme, together with the cost of interest of the sinking fund, might not be more than it was po; sible to extract from tax-payers out of the current revenue.
"That is a serious aspect," declared the Prime Minister, "and no one can look forward to it with a light heart.
"I am not going to suggest wi the solution to such a problem may be. In my view, it would be criminal to allow this situation to develop as it has been developing without making some determined effort to put a stop to it."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.