COST OF THE NAVY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1915, Page 2

COST OF THE NAVY.

Some interesting comments on the question of Lhe cost of the upkeep Of the British Navy during the war appear in a recent issue of the Naval nnd Military Record. When Mr Lloyd George spoke a,s Chancellor of the" Exchequer last November ho estimated that the Navy would cost £146,000,600 and Lhe Army £600,----000,000, representing an aggregate of £746,000,000 during the current financial year. In contrast with these, fiirures, Mr McKenna, in his recent Budget .speech, stated that under a revised estimate it was calculated that the Navy would involve an ex-' penditure of £190,000,000, an increase of £44,000,000, and that the Army would require £715,000,000, or £Us r 000,000 more than was originally, anticipated. The aggregate of £905,----000,000, which will be spent during the coming financial year on the Navy and Army, is a veiy large j

one, but it is subject to no mean deduction. If there had been no war, the two services would have cost about £80,000,000, so that the net additional sum which is being: paid, and represents the real war charge of the twelve months ending March SI next, is £825,000,000. But this is not all. Owing to the success with which tho Navy has kept open the maritime communications of the Empire, enabling Great Britain .to obtain munitions and war materials in vast quantities, the Exchequer under the nev.r scheme of taxation of Avar profits will in a full effective year obtain an additional sum by taxation, which is estimated at £30,000,000. Consequently, in calculating the cost of tho fleet to the country, one must deduct from the total sum of £190,----000,000 n matter of £50,000,000, which is the peace expenditure, and £30,000,000, the estimated product of the war profits taxation, with the result that the net cost of the Navy is actually only £110,000,000.