Mr. Churchill, following in the debate on Tuesday, promised great
efforts at economy. He had, he said, instructed General Trenchard to frame a new scheme—presumably for next year— which would not cost more than £25,000,000. Mr. Churchill reminded the House that comparisons with the pre-war Army Estimates were fallacious, unless the old figures were doubled to correspond with the rise in prices. He had arranged with the French to reduce the Army of the Rhine to a brigade of 5,000 men by the end of October. He hoped to withdraw men from Mesopotamia, where there were 20,000 British and 80,000 Indian troops, and also from Egypt and Palestine, where we had 90,000 troops, as soon as the local conditions permitted it. There were 100,000 men engaged on salvage work in France and Flanders. The British Army in India had to be maintained, and the new Regular battalions were needed to relieve the Territorial garrison.
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