PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. To be purchased through any Bookseller or directly from 37, PETER STREET, MANCHESTER; 1, ST. ANDREW's CRESCENT, CARdiff; 23, FORTH STREET, EDINBURGH; or from EASON & SON, LTD., 40 & 41, LOWER SACKVILLE STREET, Dublin. [Cmd. 1589.] Price 4s. Net. 1922. TERMS OF REFERENCE. To make recommendations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for effecting forthwith all possible reductions in the National Expenditure on Supply Services, having regard especially to the present and prospective position of the Revenue. In so far as questions of policy are involved in the expenditure under discussion, these will remain for the exclusive consideration of the Cabinet; but it will be open to the Committee to revise the expenditure and to indicate the economies which might be effected if particular policies were either adopted, abandoned or modified. The cost of printing and publishing this Report is estimated by the Stationery Office at £212 12s. 6d. THIRD REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL EXPENDITURE. To the Right Hon. SIR ROBERT S. HORNE, Sir, G.B.E., K.C., M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer. We beg to submit our Third Report, in which we deal with the 60 Votes which were outstanding after our Second Interim Report, and which account for an expenditure of approximately £102,000,000. The Provisional Estimates for Ordinary Supply Services for 1922/23 amounted to £528,000,000, showing a reduction effected by the Departments themselves of £75,000,000 upon the original Estimates for 1921/22. It is these Estimates amounting to £528,000,000 which we have been examining, and we have dealt with them as follows: In our First Interim Report we dealt with ... ... ... In our Second Interim Report we dealt with ... ... Irish Votes which we are not examining ... ... In this our Third Report we have dealt with ... £ 390,000,000* 18,000,000 17,500,000 ... 102,500,000+ 528,000,000 In this Third Report, we have also dealt with 5 Votes in respect of" Aftermath of the War Services," which come under the heading of "Special Expenditure," and we have reported on one special subject which has been prominently before us throughout our review of Government Expenditure, viz., Pay." * Including Middle East expenditure further dealt with in this report. + Excluding Army and Air Force expenditure in the Middle East. We have, as before, divided this Report into various parts according to the subject matter of the Votes under consideration, as follows, full details being given in the index. Colonial Office, Colonial Services and Middle Legal Services Group ... Revenue Departments Group Houses of Parliament and certain Civil Departments Group Works and Public Buildings Office of Works Part VIII. ... Part X. Part XI. We now proceed to deal seriatim with the Groups as set out above. PART VIII. COLONIAL AND MIDDLE-EASTERN SERVICES. The Provisional Estimates submitted to the Committee of the cost of these Services in 1922/23 amount to £15,128,532 as compared with an expenditure of £841,364 upon the Services existing in 1913/14. 1. The Estimates for 1921/22 include a Supplementary Estimate of £330,000 voted last autumn for the provision of Free Passages in connection with the Overseas Settlement Scheme, making the provision on that account in the current year £980,000. Since the Provisional Estimates were submitted the Colonial Office have furnished a revised Estimate for 1922/23 of £928,866, the large increase over the Provisional Estimate being due mainly to additional provision for the Overseas Settlement Scheme. 2. Overseas Settlement In 1919 the Government decided that approved ex-Service men and women who wished to settle within the Empire Overseas should be given free Third Class Passages for themselves and their Dependants. Under the arrangements finally made applications were required to be lodged before the 31st December, 1921, and passages taken before the 31st December, 1922. |