UN General Assembly
1956

135. Therefore, the figures which have been given are entirely wrong and likely to carry a mistaken impression. It is all the more galling to us, because we are very stem advocates of the lowering of military expenditure and of disarmament, and in that connexion I would like to read out the figures for the previous years. 136. Before 1939, the proportion of military expenditure was 33 per cent; in the year 1946 to 1947, that is, when we took over in the last year of British administration, military expenditure was 46 per cent; in the year 1949 to 1950, it came down to 29 per cent, and each year it has. gone down a little so that we have now, in the year 1956 to 1957, reached the present figure of 18.6 per cent of our capital and current expenditure, or, as I said before, 37.6 per cent on the other basis.