000. I need not say anything as to the purposes for which this
vote is required. They are the same as upon the last occasion. But I
ought to draw attention to one feature in which the supplementary vote,
which comes first, differs from the vote to be subsequently proposed for
the services of the year 1915-1916. At the outbreak of the war the
ordinary supply on a peace basis had been voted by the House, and
consequently the votes of credit for the now current financial year,
like those on all previous occasions, were to be taken in order to
provide the amounts necessary for naval and military operations in
addition to the ordinary grants of Parliament. It consequently follows
that the expenditure charged, or chargeable, to votes of credit for this
financial year represent, broadly speaking, the difference between the
expenditure of the country on a peace footing and that expenditure upon
a war footing. The total on that basis, if this supplementary vote is
assented to, will be L362,000,000.

For reasons the validity of which the committee has recognized on
previous occasions, I do not think it desirable to give the precise
details of the items which make up the total, but without entering into
that I may roughly apportion the expenditure. For the army and the navy,
according to best estimates which can at present be framed, out of the
total given there will be required approximately L275,000,000. That is
in addition, as I have already pointed out, to the sum voted before the
war for the army and the navy, which amounted in the aggregate to a
little over L80,000,000. That leaves unaccounted for a balance of
L87,000,000, of which approximately L38,000,000 represents advances for
war expenditure made, or being made, to the self-governing dominions,
Crown colonies, and protectorates, as explained in the Treasury minute
last November, under which his Majesty's Government have undertaken to
raise the loans required by the dominions to meet the heavy expenditure
entailed upon them on the credit of the imperial exchequer. In addition
to that sum of L38,000,000 there has been an advance to Belgium of
L10,000,000, and to Serbia of L800,000. Further advances to these allies
are under consideration, the details of which it is not possible yet to
make public. The balance of, roughly, L28,000,000 is required for
miscellaneous services covered by the vote of credit which have not yet
been separately specified.

I think the committee w