The Press. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1901. THE EXPENSES OF THE WAR.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10974, 25 May 1901, Page 6

The Press. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1901. THE EXPENSES OF THE WAR.

War must always be a. costly expedient from the purely commercial point of view, and nor thing but urgent need would ever justify a nation in so expensive an undertaking. But •t the British Empire has faced the question of a . the war in South Africa boidly, !- are not likely to be many protests, now that the bills are beginning to come in. Still it 11 is always a consolation to know how,the y money has gone, and that much comfort is ■*_ to be obtained from a study of tha following i statistics. Between October 17th, 1899, and _, September 30th, 1900, for war purposes alone, England expended nearly sixty-one c millions. The figures are too large to con- ! • vey any (Lsfinite impression of either extravaganoe pr economy. How does such atn expenditure compare with the disbursements ;, of other nations in similar circumstances? Mr Bloch tells us that no European nation can wage war on a -scale of less than 8s per j man per day. Allowing for 430,000 men to be paid, our individual .expenses work out . at 8s Id per day, which certainly sounds en- : couraging. But a large proportion of this force consists of only temporary soldiers, and this makes a vast difference to the average. j The estimates on March 31st, 1900, allowed ! for the support of .200,000 men in the field at the rate of £22,765,000 for six months. 'This does not include sea transport, arms, ~ ammunition, which, bring the total up to £28,000,000. Allowing 220,000 men to keep the field force up to the 200,000 limit, the ' daily expenses come to 13s lOd per man, or nearly 6s above Bloch's limit. At the same time, if the money already voted can be spun out .to the end of the year (thiee j months beyond the estimate), the daily expense will average only 10s 5d per man. This is certainly a rapid way of incurring liability, and it is by no means the whole of our burden, for*we are still spending quite £1,000,000 a month on the sea. When we come to'tbe question of indirect expenditure | involved in the war, we can only say that ; such expenses, in the experience of other nations, far outweigh d_rect payments, on the score of war materials and men. The United States had their great war in 1860----64, and they will not have got rid of their i contingent liabilities for pensions and other ! claims for another hundred years. The • 2,600,000 men put into the field by the Federals cost about 4s 6d each per day. Good authorities hold that the Northern States alone expended in those four yeara about £680,000,000 in direct expenses. By 1879 the total pensions and compensations had come to £500,000,000 more. Between 1879----1895 the pensions totalled another £360,000,000. Mr G. Waldron has estimated the total expenses of both sides in the American Civil War at about £1,000,000,000, and the total financial burden on the nation at not less than £2,000,000,000. It is true that America had even to teach her soldiers. But the financial history of that great war is a most gloomy object lesson, and we can only hope that our "incidentals" will not be exaggerated on a proportional scale. Our wars must always be expensive because of the difficulties of transport, and the Boer war is not exceptionally burdensome in this respect. In spite of all that has been said about our bad organisation, it took only £350,000 to concentrate and embark the army in England. The conveyance of 235,000 men for over 6000 .miles By sea, at all possible speed, cost £10,115,000, and this has been accepted, even by adverse critics of the War Office, as a very satisfactory figure. The land carriage to Pretoria (1040 miles from Capetown and 200 to 600 miles in other directions) cost nearly three and a half millions. Altogether the transport items combine to give a total of over £14,130,000 for over a year's fighting. ! Hoxsea and baggage animal- have cost about four ___<_. a half mili-ons for the year. In the American war the expenditure under this head, was at the rate of about £6,300,000 per a___ium for four years. It is true that I their aarmy was eight times as large as ours, but the oonditions &o_i- the horse's point of

- - ■ ■- - ■ ■ -. - - - view were infinitely more favoui-able. Taking a general survey of the operation-, it would seem that even, allowing for the interest on war loons and the amount, that will have .*> be expended on pensions and gratuities, the Softrth' Mricm ' war, judged iby the -taj-_c-_rd of foreign military experience, _*___ not been unduly or overwhelmingly expensive. The most interesting question that can be asked about the finances of the war wcni-d be-r-how much could have been laved "-•J S n-atfagemenb? There is no doubt that "all wars are expensive which are not carefully organised and worked oat in detail Our 'Crimean experience was as dep-crable financially ac it. waa in most other respects. We spent about seventy millions at the rate of 19s .per man per day and got nothing for it: Napoleon 111., in has Italian campaign, which lasted only seventy-three days, spent 38s 6d per man per day. But the most shocking example of extravagance arising from mismanagement is to bs found in the Franco-Prussian war. The French army of 700,000 men cost 24s p_-r man per tfeay, and was hopelessly beaten by the Germans, who cost only 5s 5d eaoh par day. Moltke showed hia genius no less in his financial economies than in has military dispositions. He put nearly 1,200,000 men into the field for about 200 days at a cost of sixty-five millions, and at the end of ths time his country was eightyfive millions to the good, not counting two new States, valued at the time at sixty-four millions, and the sratisfaotion of beating an enemy superior to' itself in wealth and resources. It is to be feared that our War Office cannot furnish any rival to Moltke in matters of organisation and military finance. Germany waa not afraid to pay a heavy price for success when necessity demanded it. The Prusso-Austrian 'wAr in 1866 lasted only forty-one days and cost sixty-six millions, at the rate of £2 per man per day. But by it Prussia changed the face of Europe and confirmed for all time the status of the Gei-man Empire. To secure a great 1 and just J-ationa-L triumph, to. avert national disaster or dishonour, no price in blood or treasure is .too heavy to pay, and though gold were poured forth like water neither Great Britain nor the colonies would be false to their irrevocable decision to maiintain the integrity of the Empire in Africa.