A PROPHETIC CRITIC

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 33, 7 August 1914, Page 2

A PROPHETIC CRITIC

TENSION OF 1911 RECALLED. "France and Germany are at war, and we are also . involved ) ' Germany violates Belgian territory, and France calls on us to eend our isfx regular divisions acrose the Channel," is one passage in a remarkable article by Ma.jorGeneral Jeffreys, C.8., in the Nineteenth Century of March last year. "It is everywhere recognised upon the Continent and very generally at 'Home,' 1 ' the expert critic stated, "that certain questions may, and are not tin likely, to, uring on a conflict between Gerniany and Great Britain. "At a time when our relations, with both Russia and the United State's are most cordial, it seems unnecessary to hold out the prospects of a struggle with either as an incentive to rebuild our military house. Let us, therefore, for tue sake of clearness, admit that it is with regard to Germany that we should taive stock of our naval and military position. ... It is hardly necessary to dwell upon the reality of this menace. The facts speak for themselves, and cannot be controverted. We allude to the state of tension between this country and Germany in 1911, and the orders to our fleet to guard against a surprise attack, the gradual concentration of our battle squadrons in home waters, the selection of Rosyth and S&irpa Flow ac naval bases and the jealous care with which the expansion of our shipbuilding programme follows that of Germany's." HUGE EXPENDITURE THE COsFoE WAR. Whatever may be- the toll of lives in. the great European war, the material H cost threatens to be the heaviest in history. ' Some idea of the possibilities may bo formed from the figure's of the ! principal wars during tho past half- ! century. Here is a table:— , ' t . *• ' War. ( v Cost. Crimean (1854) ... ...£340,000,000 Italian (1859) 60,000,000 American Civil War (1861- ' 1865) v 1,400,000,000 Prussia, Austria, and Italy . (1866) ... • ..-. ... 66,000,000 Franco-German (1870-1871) 444,000,000' jTurcq-Russian (1877), Rus- • sia's. cost <* Chino-Japanese (1894), Japan's cost .<. ... 20,000,000 Spanish- American (1898) ... 270)000,000 Russo-Japanese" (1904-1905) 503,000,000 Balkans (1912-1913) ...,246,000,000 It is stated that France, Russia, and Gi-eat Britain between them haye 'a. -watchest of £426,000,000 in hand, while Germany, Italy, and Austria are said to have £213,440,000. This hoard of gold seems enormous, bub modern war eats gold. The Russo-Japanese war, which 1 lasted just eighteen months, cost Japan £203,094,000, arid Russia £300,000,000. The* Franco-German war, which lasted nine months, cost France, the loser, 5720,000,'P00, while Germany, ■ having expended £77.550,000 on the war, recouped herself by a. war indemnity of £213,009,000 exacted frdm France and by the annexation of Alaace-Lorr; me, valued at £64.000,000. Thus ehe came out the gainer on the whole transaction by £199.450,000, or, in round figures, two hundred millions sterling. The usual estimate of the cost of maintaining Continental troops in' the field is 6s ocr man per day, buK the late Herr BebeJ estimated the cost of keeping * a German army m the field at ten marks, that is to say, 10» per man per day. British troops have always cost considerably more than that, financial experts have calculated that, in the. event of Great Britain being involved in 1 war with any European Power, it would' entail a war expenditure of at least a million sterling a. day, and war taxation of nearly a million a week.