24 MARCH 1917, Page 2

In the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Boner Law

made a statement as to national expenditure. The total payments for all services (war and peace) between February 11th and March 31st were estimated to work out at an average of £7,260,000 a day; but in this period heavy special payments had fallen due, increasing the average expenditure by over £1,000,000 a day. The total expenditure for the whole year from April 1st, 1918, to March 31st next would work out at about £6,000,000 a day, and the nominal total of the National Debt at the close of the present year was at present estimated at £3,900,000,000, of which £964,000,000 repre- sented advances made during the year to the Allies and Dominions.