Evening Post. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1917. MR. BONAR LAW'S REVIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 11 May 1917, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1917. MR. BONAR LAW'S REVIEW

In. introducing the latest vote of credit in the House of CommonSj Mr. Bonar Law showed that the colossal figures to which the war has accustomed us have 'again, increased.. When Mr. Asquith told us some two months ago that Britain would soon be spending £5,000,000 a day on the war we gasped in amazement, but to-day we have hardly any wonder left for the enlargement of those incredible figures by nearly 50 per cent. There has, of course, been a steady increase all the time, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer makes no attempt to conceal the fact that the recent expenditure haa exceeded the estimate. "The average daily expenditure at present is," he says, " £7,450,000, of which £2,000,000 went to the Allies and Dominions, exceeding the Budget estimates for such advances by a million daily." In April, however, the British Treasury paid out to the Dominions but was not reimbursed, and if this be allowed for the Chancellor believes that the Budget estimates of expenditure for the year will be approximately, correct. The figures for this expenditure since the beginning of the war are as follow: 1914-15 (eight months of war), £597,000,000; 1915-16, £1,550,000,000; 1916-17 (estimated), £2,000,000,000. It is clear that during the current year this appalling total must be greatly exceeded, even after conceding tlie full discount from the recent daily expenditure. according to Mr. Bonar Law's estimate. A particularly pleasing feature of his statement was the gratitude which he expressed for "the promptitude of American financial assistance." The German people are reported to be in ecstasies over the success of their submarine campaign, but it is^ becoming clearer every day that, the triumph has been dearly purchased by the price which they have had to pay for it in the shape of America's.' hostility. Mr. Bonar Law's review of the war was cheerful without encouraging extravagant hopes. How eager such hopes are to find a pretext was proved by the deep significance which was being attached a. few weeks ago to a perfectly commonplace and non-committal remark ■of his about the duration of the war. Though Mr. Bonar Law's latest utterance is hopeful and confident, it leaves no room for absurdity of this kind. It provides ample ground for believing that we are moving in the right direction, but .none for the belief that the goal is within easy reach. With regard to the Mesopotamian campaign, while crediting General Maude with " military ability of the highest order," and doing full justice to "the splendid courage and ardour of the troops," Mr. Bonar Law said that " the British success was in no small part dne to the work of the General Staff at Home, which had 'made the arrangements." This remark is interesting and gratifying, for the muddle which resulted in General Townshend's gallant failure was clearly attributable in large measure to the division of responsibility and control between the- Indian Government and the War Office. It was proved by this fiasco, which threw a dark shadow over British prestige in ,the East for nearly a year, that Britain, while endeavouring to secure a unity of control for all the Allied campaigns, had not yet fully realised this unity with regard to her own operations. The change which Mr. Bonar Law declares to be in a large measure responsible for redeeming the disaster at Kut by the triumph, at Bagdad, encourages the hope that the larger unity has also been attained. The Chancellor of the Exchequer dealt 'in a more detailed fashion with the campaign to which all eyes have recently turned as likely to furnish momentous if not decisive results. The controversy between the "Westerners" and the "Easterners" has been temporarily lulled by* the tremendous developments of the campaign in France. So powerful is Germany's military prestige, nearly a year after the initiative was taken from her in the West that the retreat which has been for some weeks in progress has been widely regarded as but part of a deep-laid scheme from which disaster would emerge for the Allies. Mr. Bonar Law's clear summary of the position ought to give the coup de grace to this lingering suspicion. ." The rapidity of the attack,", he says, "forestalled the enemy, who 'had to fight in the open with hea,vy losses before their trenches, j which they had not time to prepare." If we had merely this statement to bal- | ance against the jubilant German bulletins announcing the various stages in a retreat which had surprised and eluded the enemy, there might be some who would prefer the word of the German authorities to that of a British Minister. But, unfortunately for the German case, the British statement has the facts on its side.

Mr. Bonar Law points out that since Ist April we have taken 20,000' prisoners, 257 guns, and 227 trench mortars. Granted that the German retreat was a movement voluntarily and cleverly begun towards a "more suitable" and " carefully prepared" position in the. rear, these figures are ample evidence that the movement has not been allowed to end as it began. The retreat made a good start, as the remarkably small tale of prisoners in its early stages proved; but that the pursuit has caught up and exacted a terrible penalty is now equally clear. >Ye may safely assume that the loss of 20,000 prisoners and 257 guns was not in accordance with the '-' pre-arranged , plans " by which the Germans have professed ,to be baffling their enemies. It is still too early to say that the whole German design has been shattered, but the. moral effect upon the already depressed spirits of their troops must in any event be immense. "If we wish," as Mr. Bonar Law aptly says, "to realise how much has been dene en the Western front, l«t us picturo our ieeliuga ii in the iam 'rwl«4 v

during the Battle of Arras we had lost 20,000 prisoners and the number of guns that the Germans have lost." The end may still be far off, but it has certainly been brought very much nearer by the British and French triumphs of the last

six weeks.