Part of Orders of the Day — Civil Estimates and Estimates for Revenue Departments, Supplementary Estimates, 1934. – in the House of Commons at on 1 March 1935.
Mr William Ormsby-Gore
, Stafford
I thought I had explained that item. It all arises out of the postponement of the road-widening scheme at Tehran and is purely an accounting point. As to the other point raised by the hon. Member it is not merely as a matter of taste that these changes are made. In the past many of our embassies and legations were furnished by our wealthier ambassadors out of their own pockets. In these more democratic days we cannot rely on always having ambassadors who are in a position to contribute a large part of the embassy furnishings from their own homes in England or at their own expense and most of these embassies are now furnished mainly by the Office of Works. We make it a rule that while an ambassador and his wife are in a particular place we do not make many changes but when a new ambassador is appointed we take advantage of the interregnum between the old and new ambassadors to take a complete inventory of the furniture and make the necessary repairs and replacements which are supposed to last for the new ambassador's time. That is how this increase arises.