asked the Minister of Defence what proportion of the £1,653,000,000 spent during 1946–47 on the supply services was spent for the maintenance of Forces abroad; whether he will state in detail the spheres where such money was spent; what proportion of this amount spent abroad had to be paid for in dollars; and whether the proportion of the £899,000,000 to be spent on the supply services during 1947–48 which will have to be spent in dollars will be approximately equal to the proportion spent in 1946–47.

The figure quoted by the hon. Member is the total of the Exchequer issues made during last financial year against Navy, Army, Air and Ministry of Supply Votes. It includes not only expenditure of all kinds for the Forces, but also expenditure by the Ministry of Supply for civil purposes. It would be quite impossible to say how much of this figure can properly be regarded as having been spent on main-tenance of Forces overseas. I regret, therefore, that I am unable to provide the information for which the hon. Member asks.

Cannot the Minister provide the information under the third section relating to particulars of expenditure of dollars, and would not that be very useful for this House to know and a valuable hint for the Chancellor of the Exchequer?

I think it is quite impossible to divide up every part of this expenditure so as to show exactly where stores, allowances and so on are finally expended.

asked the Minister of Defence whether he can now give final figures of the number of deserters who surrendered in response to his recent appeal; how many still await trial; and in how many cases family allowance has not yet been issued to their dependants.

The number of deserters who surrendered between 22nd January and 31st March is:

Royal Navy	…	378
Army	…	1,664
Royal Air Force	…	299

Of these 13, 612 and 119 respectively are still awaiting trial, primarily because of the large number who surrendered in the last few days of March. I regret that no figures are available to answer the last part of the Question, but I have no reason to suppose that there has been any delay.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that in many cases the dependants of those who have responded to the appeal are kept waiting for two months and more for the issue of family allowance?

I have not heard of a single case, but I am sure that my Service Minister colleagues will go into any case which is brought to my hon. and gallant Friend's attention if he would notify them.

Can my right hon. Friend say how many of these men are still at large, and in view of the present disturbing growth of violent crime, will he take all possible steps to round them up?

Some 700 to 800 others have in fact been apprehended during the period covered by my answer and, of course, when the total figure was given to the House some time ago it was pointed out that it was impossible to say with regard to some of them who or where they are. Some may have died in the meantime.