The Estimates for Civil Service and Revenue Depart- ments for
1923-24 were published on Monday. They show a decrease of £88,184,997 as against last year. Individually, there is a reduction in most of the services. In a speech on Monday evening, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said he thought that when the Estimates were published, no unbiased elector could help but feel that the last and the present Governments had made real efforts to cut down expenses. Certainly most of the credit for these reductions is due to Mr. Baldwin, though we believe that if he had been better supported in certain quarters he could have made still more reduc- tions. Mr. Baldwin himself pointed out, however, that while further reductions were possible and would come in both the civil and fighting services, the more they were reduced the nearer they got to the point where further reduction would be impossible. In the other great branch of expenditure, the National Debt, lay our chief hope of making further reductions in the Budget.
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