"This stupendous figure which measures the size and effort that has been made, and hich measures the whole country's determination to make it," was how Sir John Simon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, described the £630,000,000 defence estimate amid cheers in the course of his Budget Speech in the House of Commons today.
Sir John explained that the defence expenditure last year from revenue was £ 254,500,000.
The sum borrowed totalled £ 128,000,000, making a total of £382 500,000 for the three defence departments.
With food storage and air raid precautions, the gross total was almost exactly £400,000,000.
The supplement tary expenditure for defence w a most orions and important question, and was the cardinal issue of the present Budget.
The estimated expenditure for the supply services was—£675,000,000. The total estimated expenditure for ihe air raid precautions services was £42,000000 of which £37,000,000 would be borrowed. The estimated expenditure on food reserves was 5,000,000. The total expenditure provided from revenue was £922, 000,000, this being apart from defence supplementary expenditure.
Dealing with social services and home expenditure, Sir John stated that new internal projects, calling for major additions in expenditure, were not possible under the present circumstances,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.