Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1899. THE COST OF WAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11354, 12 October 1899, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1899. THE COST OF WAR.

The 'British Parliament is to be callec together in speoial session to vot< .£10,000,000 as a war credit in the eveni of hostilities in South Africa. Tht amount seems small, and probably woulc fall far short of the actual expenditure It is a common belief that a naval war is much more costly than a campaign on land. When we read that every sbol fired from the mammoth guns of the large battleships costs several hundreds oi pounds, when the coal consumed is mentioned, and other details given, the items seem to make an enormous aggregate. But the ship, if expensive in one direction, is very economical in others. It ia its own transport, carries all its guns, ammunition, food supplies, ooal, and fighting force. .On land the moving of men and the necessary commisariat and war equipments is a terribly expensive affair. This is forcibly brought home by some figures furnished by The Times' correspondent at Tokio as to the cost of the war between China and Japan. There is no doubt that it was the naval engagements which secured viotory for Japan. We do not mean that she would not have won had operations been confined to land fighting, but that as events turned out it was more of a naval than a land war. Yet it was the operations on land which coat by far the greater sum. Including the operations in Formosa, the war lasted 12 months. Seven military expeditions were undertaken, the first of which marohed 500 miles, the third 200, the fourth 120, and the fifth 140. The total number of Japanese troops employed was 120,000, and the transport arrangements were conducted by about tho same number of transport coolies. In the naval operations 28 ships were engaged. The aggregate of expenditure was .£20,000,000 sterling, of which IG.J was the outlay on the rfrmy, 3J that on the navy. The amount spent on arms and ammunition was only about two millions, and that on "rewards" three-quarters of a million. Other interesting itemß were transport three and one-third millions, secret servico dC*I7,OOO, and religious services for tho doad .£IOOO. Although Japan •btained from China an indemnity of 30 millions, she used less than eight millions of this to defray her expenditure on the war, but employed it for expanding the national armaments and partly for purposes of productive enterprise. The national debt was therefore increased by ■ a domestic loan of 11J millions, the war bonds for which at 5 per cent wore readily and patriotically taken up by the ponple, although there was no difficulty in finding muoh more profitable investmonts. No gold was paid out at all for war expenses, BOmo .£18,250,000 of which were, liquidated by paper notes and ooppor coiiJß, "Conßideriuj^ tfye magnj.

tude of the operations," says the correspondent, "and considering that thoy were | conducted in over-sea countries, it must be acknowledged that Japan mannged her first foreign war in modern times very cheaply."