ITALY'S FINANCIAL BURDEN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 290, 20 September 1935, Page 5

ITALY'S FINANCIAL BURDEN.

NEW TAXATION NECESSARY.

PURCHASE OF RAW MATERIALS

LONDON, September IS.

“Can Italy afFord to fight?” asks tho city editor of the “Daily Telegraph,” in a striking article implying that a desperate financial gamble to raise credits in London, Paris and New York failed.

The Budget deficit in 1931 was £11,317,000, in 1932 it was £65,9.67,000, in 1933 £60,367,000 and in 1934 £107,633,000. In the last-mentioned

year more, than a quarter of the total of the national expenditure was not balanced by revenue and the possibility of balancing it by extra taxation was ruled out by II Dnoe’s declaration m May, 1934, that relief from taxation was imperative. The action, against Abyssinia cost £10,333,000 up to April, and the expenditure in July alone adder £6,250,000. Until the conquest and development of Abyssinia are accomplished Italy will lie compelled to buy large quantities of raw materials abroad, normally requiring 99 per cent, of cotton, 80 per cent, of wool, 95 per cent, of coal, 99 per cent, of nunera oil, 99 per cent, of copper and 53 per cent, of other metals. II Duce imported extra raw materials in the last 18 months in preparation, so for a few months foreign purchases may be small and the supplies of gold adequate, but if the Abyssinian war is as prolonged as the South African War was, Italy will be dependent on foreign help, without which she will be unable to achieve victory. The strain on the nation’s resources is so intense that a protracted campaign will inevitably eauso a financial crash. II Duce’s consciousness of the financial problem is revealed in the statement that new taxes, which were too burdensome a year ago, are now unavoidable.