Paris, Dec. 18.
The National Defence Budget was approved by the Chamber of Deputies here last night.
The Army credits amount to francs 7,652,000,000 which includes 5,795,000,- 000 for the metropolitan forces and 1,857,000,000 for the overseas forces. Beside these figures provided by the ordinary budget, 10,552,000,000 francs will be provided by extraordinary credits, bringing the total figure of War Office expenditures to 18,005,000,- 000, an increase of 5,771.000.000 over the 1938 budget Naval credits amount to 2,674,000, 000. showing an increase of 480,000, 000 over the preceding year. The total naval expenditures will reach the sum of 8,174,000,000, including the provisions of the extraordinary budget, which means a total increase of 76 per cent. over the 1938 credits.
The Air Office's credits will total 2,821,500,000 excluding extraordinary credits.
Other credits passed by the Chamber at yesterday's session were the Alsace-Lorraine and Agriculture credits. Foreign Affairs expenditures will be tackled next Monday.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.