If, therefore, the satisfaction with which we regard the big total of the Government’s revenue receipts has to be considerably modified in the cold light of close observation, the enormous increase on the expenditure side gives us very little comfort and calls for the most determined and continued criticism if our reckless Government is to be made to turn over a new leaf.  In the early days of the war there was much excuse for wasting money.  We had to improvise a great Army, and a great organisation for equipping it; there was no time then to look too closely into the way the money was being spent, but this excuse is long obsolete.  It is not possible to waste money without also wasting the energy and working power of the nation; on this energy and working power the staying power of the country depends in its struggle to avert the greatest disaster that can be imagined for civilisation, that is, the victory of the German military power.  Seeing that for many months past we have no longer been obliged to finance Russia, and to provide Russia with the mass of materials and the equipment that she required, the way in which our expenditure has mounted up during the course of the year is a very serious blot on the year’s balance-sheet.  We spent during the year ending March 31st, L2696 millions against L2198 millions in the previous year, an increase of close upon L500 millions; L63 millions of this increase were due to interest on war debt, the rest of it was due to increased cost of the war, and few business men will deny that very many of these extra millions might have been saved if our rulers and our bureaucratic tyrants had been imbued with any real sense of the need for conserving the energy of the nation.

Much has been done by the Committee on National Expenditure to bring home to the Government opportunities for economy, and methods by which it can be secured.  Can we be equally confident that much has been done by the Government to carry out the advice that has been given by this Committee?  The Treasury is frequently blamed for its inability to check the rapacity and extravagance of the spending Departments.  It is very likely that the Treasury might have done more if it had not been led by its own desire for a short-sighted economy into economising on its own staff, the activity and efficiency of which was so absolutely essential to the proper spending of the nation’s money.  But when this has been admitted, the fact remains that the Treasury cannot, or can only with great difficulty, be stronger on the side of economy than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and that the task of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of imposing economy on a spendthrift War Cabinet is one of extreme difficulty.  I hope it is not necessary to say that I do not urge economy from any sordid desire to save the nation’s money if, by its spending, victory could be secured or brought a day nearer.  I only urge it because I believe that the conservation of our resources is absolutely necessary