The estimates for the coming financial year which were published during February compared with those of the previous year as follows:

In the individual departments there was a reduction of about half a million for the Ministry of Labour, of more than a million for the Board of Education, and of three millions on the Ministry of Pensions, owing to the automatic reduction in the number of pensions and gratuities caused by death. The Middle Eastern Services also showed a reduction of nearly a million, and half a million less was put down for the relief of unemployment. On the other hand, there was an increase of half a million on the Ministry of Agriculture, and half a million on old-age pensions.

The first of the Estimates to be considered by Parliament was that for the Air Force, which came up on February 26. The figure of 15,513,000l. was an apparent net rise of rather more than half a million over the expenditure of the previous year, but the real increase, as Sir S. Hoare, the Secretary of State for Air explained, was close on two millions, as the Admiralty was giving a grant in aid to the Air Ministry for the Fleet Air arm. The increase, said the Minister, was principally due to two causesthe home expansion scheme and the exhaustion of war stocks. The expansion, he maintained, was in accordance with the declared views of each of the three parties in the House. Every Minister in the last four or five years who had introduced the Air Estimates had emphasised the magnitude of the revolution which had been brought about in the problem of home defence by the introduction of Air Force. The principles of Air Force expansion for home defence had been explained by Lord Thomson and Mr. Leach twelve months before, no less than by himself two years ago, and he did not need to do more than draw attention to any new features that might be connected with the present stage of the expansion.

When he took office two years before, he said, there were on a liberal calculation only three air squadrons available for home defence. To-day there were six times as many, and at the end of the ensuing year there would be twenty-six. They were now equipping the regular squadrons in the expansion scheme with

new post-war types of machines. In the ensuing year the experiment of introducing two non-Regular units into the Air Force would be tried, while in the Regular units themselves the experiment was to be made of introducing a large civilian element, for the purpose of carrying out the less important non-flying duties. Unity of command had been introduced into the field of air defence by the appointment towards the end of the previous year of an Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief. The Minister here took occasion to refer to the part which Air Force could play in the defence of the Empire, pointing especially to the great success which had attended the experiment of garrisoning Iraq principally with an Air Force. The Air Staff, he said, were giving their attention to quality rather than to quantity, and he thought that the quality of the pilots was improving, and that the boys now in training might, in course of time, prove themselves the finest mechanics the world had ever seen. To foster civil aviation, a sum had been introduced for the first time into the Air Estimates for giving assistance to light aeroplane clubs; while in regard to airship development, the Minister undertook to continue the arrangements with a private company made by his predecessor. Touching finally on the possibilities of restricting aeroplane warfare, he pointed out some of the difficulties involved owing to the close connexion of civil with military aviation, and said that for the present they must proceed with air expansion, and would continue to build up a system of defence that would make the risk of air attack less likely and its dangers less immediate than at the present time.

Opposition to the Estimate was offered by Mr. Snowden on behalf of the Labour Party. He said that, granting that a large Air Force was necessary, he had no fault to find with the speech of Sir S. Hoare. Every one would agree that so long as they had an Air Force it ought to be efficient. But he denied that in so rapidly increasing air armaments the Government was merely continuing the policy of its predecessor. That policy had been defined by Mr. Leach when Under-Secretary for Air, in a speech in which he had said: "The scheme is being worked out in stages, and does not debar us from taking advantage of any movement in the direction of disarmament or the reduction of armaments.' Twelve months previously, Mr. Snowden pointed out, the ratio between the Air Forces of France and Britain had been ten to one; to-day it was only three to one. During the past two years, while England had been accelerating her programme, France had been decelerating hers. This seemed to him to remove to a great extent, if not altogether, the grounds on which the British policy had been initiated. Further, he said, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had a great weapon in his hand in the shape of the French indebtedness for procuring disarmament on the part of that country, and he regretted that the present

Chancellor had thrown away his best bargaining powers in this matter. These arguments did not greatly impress the House, and in the voting only 101 members supported Mr. Snowden against 270 for the Government.

In the discussion on the details of the Estimate, Mr. Thurtle moved to reduce the number of men from 36,000 to 1,000. In the debate which followed, Mr. Clynes said that the Labour Party as a whole had a good deal of sympathy with the views of the mover, and regarded him as a pioneer in a good cause. As yet, however, they had not decided in favour of the complete cancellation of the fighting Services, and preferred to seek a settlement on the lines of an international agreement. A division was called for, and Mr. Thurtle found twenty-five supporters.

In a further discussion of the Air Estimates on March 12, a number of speakers from all parties pleaded for better co-ordination between the three arms of defence, and it was suggested that the development of the Air Force was hampered by the jealousy of the Navy. The Air Minister, in reply, said that the institution of a single Ministry of Defence could not be brought about suddenly by the creation of a new office of supermen. The right course was to take every step to bring the three Services more closely together, and he had done all in his power to carry that policy into effect. There were now a certain number of Army officers and naval officers working together at the Air Ministry, and on more than one occasion the three Chiefs of Staff had taken collective responsibility for the advice on some big strategical questions that they were offering to the Government.

After passing the Air Estimates, the House of Commons, on March 17, began to consider the Army Estimates. These were half a million less than in the previous year, for a thousand men fewer-44,500,000l. for 160,000 men. The Secretary for War, Sir L. Worthington-Evans, stated that he was disquieted by the number of would-be recruits who had been rejected on medical grounds. The figure in the last year had been 49,245, a proportion of five out of eight applicants. He regarded unemployment benefit as being a serious obstacle to recruiting, and in order to counteract it he was trying to make arrangements by which parents whose unemployed sons joined the Army would not lose the benefit of their allowance. With regard to the supplementary reserve of skilled mechanics which had been started by his predecessor, he regretted that the National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport Workers' Union were not satisfied with his assurances about strike-breaking, and declared that the Government would go on without their help, if necessary. He announced that in the event of an emergency calling for effort on a national scale, the Territorial Army would be the accepted medium of expansion of the military forces of the country. The strength of the Territorial Army was still 22 per cent. under establishment

in the case of the officers and 24 per cent. in the case of all ranks, and he did not doubt that a special effort would have to be made in the course of the current year to improve and stimulate recruiting for that arm. He announced, also, that it was proposed to revive this year manœuvres for the first time since the war, and that 95,000l. had been taken in the Estimates for that purpose.

Mr. Walsh, who, as Minister of War in the Labour Government, had drawn up the obnoxious circular, said that there had never been any intention on the part of responsible persons to use the supplementary reserve for strike-breaking, and thought that the "woful misunderstanding " as to its object and purpose was due to the blundering of recruiting sergeants, who tried to press men into the Service instead of persuading them. Mr. Thomas, speaking on behalf of the railwaymen, considered that the Minister had gone a long way towards meeting their objections, and that with a little tact and reasonableness the parties concerned would even now be able to come to an understanding.

In the Committee discussion on the Army and Air Force Bill on April 1, Mr. Thurtle moved the abolition of the death penalty for military offences on active service, stating that the motion had the official support of the Labour Party. While aware of the report of the Departmental Committee set up to consider the subject by Mr. Walsh in the previous year, he refused to accept its conclusions, as he considered they reflected the point of view of the professional soldier and not of the ordinary citizen. He pointed to the example of the Australian Government in insisting during the war that no Australian citizen should be executed. In spite of this argument, the Labour Party proved in the debate to be alone in thinking that the death penalty could be abolished without detriment to discipline. Defenders of the existing order maintained that the utmost reluctance was shown by the military authorities to inflict the death penalty, and that there was no danger of the courts martial abusing their powers. The Secretary for War stated that the Committee appointed by the Labour Government had advised certain alterations, which would be accepted by the Government. One of the chief of these would be to place officers and men on the same footing in regard to malingering and other offences. In regard to the Australians, he pointed out that the death penalty was not entirely abrogated in the Australian Army, and deprecated comparisons between that army and the British. The motion was in the end defeated by 320 votes to 136.

The Navy Estimates for the year, which were introduced on March 19, amounted to 60,500,000l.-a net increase (allowing for the transfer of votes from other services) of 3,300,000l. over the estimates of the previous year. Mr. Bridgeman, the First Lord of the Admiralty, justified the increase on the ground that the previous Government had been too drastic in its economies.

Although Mr. Amery, he said, in 1923 cut the Navy Estimates to the bone, last year, when the Labour Party was in power, they were cut considerably below the bone. The Estimates contained no provision for new construction, because the whole question of the programme of the replacement of cruisers and other warships was under the consideration of a Committee, which would report in time to allow of a Supplementary Estimate being introduced before the end of the summer. As was expected, the First Lord announced the decision of the Government to proceed with the provision of a dock at Singapore in which the largest battleship would be capable of being docked and repaired. The total cost was estimated at 11,000,000l.

The Estimate was severely criticised by Mr. R. MacDonald and Sir A. Mond. The former charged the Government with having been unduly influenced by the advice of naval experts, and with having subordinated policy to strategy, and not having considered the political reactions that would be caused by the distribution of the Fleet. Whereas twelve months ago, he said, his party still considered the advisability of a naval base at Singapore as an open question, they had since come to the conclusion that the pursuance of the scheme was a calamity, as it brought them nearer to the point at which they would find war inevitable. Sir A. Mond complained that the First Lord had given them no idea of what the Estimates were really going to be. They had already an increase of five millions; were they to see another increase of fifteen millions? He agreed that a strong Navy was necessary; but was the great naval victory they had obtained not to relieve the people of this country by a single penny of the expenditure placed on their shoulders? They could not afford to go on having estimates of that kind, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had failed in his duty in not seeing to it that they were reduced.

In the Committee stage a vigorous attempt was made by the Opposition to reverse the Government's Singapore decision on the vote for works, buildings, and repairs, which came up on March 23. The subject had already been discussed in the House of Lords on March 4, when Lord Curzon stated that the expenditure to which it was proposed to ask the assent of Parliament during the next three years for the fortification of Singapore, did not amount to as much as 800,000l., and that Hong-Kong had promised a contribution of 250,000l., and the Straits Settlements had offered to provide the necessary land. In the course of the debate, Lord Balfour, speaking as one who had attended the Washington Conference, contended warmly that the arrangement could give Japan no just cause of complaint, and stated that no hint had reached him personally that the Japanese looked with any jealousy on the work. In the House of Commons Mr. MacDonald denounced the Government's action as tending to