The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. Thursday, november 30, 1899. France.

Feilding Star, Volume XXI, Issue 129, 30 November 1899, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. Thursday, november 30, 1899. France.

o Although a considerable sum of ii jHuy— 60 000 000 fiMiiCs — was re■>uit'v votwl *wr ih< 1 coastal defences f Km nee, yet the (jnvrin•nent is seriously alarmed at the perpetual increase of expenditure. The Country Deputies are restive from fear of their constituents, one or two ttxethrtving ceased to be elastic, and the financiers have warned the Treasury that a new loan would be most unpopular. There must be] reductions, -md the Government, which is i » tht main a sensible one, is looking rouur for opportunities of saving. It tindb chkt although it can cbeck, and has checked, colonial expansion, and can >c slow about reorganising the navy, ■irgu reductions cannot be made un :»ss th« Military Budget is attacked '"he Cabinet therefore, we have been ->ld, iuteudß to propose certain econo:ni^-. which will save a million sterling. rind to reduce the total strength of th< >inny *»y forty thousand men, wind will save two millions more. We venture to doubt the absolute truth of the übove, because it is open to doubt whether any Government in Francr would have the courage to make such a proposal in face of the cver-growinp German armaments. AH the Government desire to do, we take it, is to warn the peopie tliat the nation is spending too much money, and tbat 'he incessant demands of the military it ust be hrourbt to an end.