COST OF THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLVIII, 17 December 1914, Page 8

COST OF THE WAR

FRENCH ECONOMIST'S VIEW

; COLOSSAL FIGURES. - Discussing: the cost of the war before . ithe- members of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, M. Leroy-Beau-lieu, the famous French economist, has been juggh'ng with some figures, before which the imagination positively reels (writes th P Paris correspondent of the London "Telegraph.") Assuming the daily cost cf the soldier under arms to be . approximately from 12 to 12£ francs—roughly 10s in English money—M. Lefoy-Beanlieu calculates the . - war expenditure of each of the five chief belligerent rations—Germany, Austria - Hungary, Russia, "France,.and" England—at the colossal figure of £40,000.000 sterling per. month. ... .-■.;.-.; Supposing, then, that the present war - lasts for seven months, as did the war of -1870-71, he arrives at the sum of £1,400,000,000 sterling as the aggregate cost to the five nations named. To that, however, have to lie added £3,000,000 or £4,000,000:. more as the expenditure cast upon the nations, like BelS??™ •W*' Sefvia, upon Japan, and upon j various neutral States in having to maintain, their armies on a war footing. , Finally, after hostilities' are. over there trill be a- transition before peace is firmlv established, and as this period ma\S well last a couple of years, Mr Le-roy-Beanlien assumes-an" expenditure of 200 millions.more. His conclusion, then, is that the direct expenditure imposed upon the. States involved, quite independent of the- sacrifices and losses of individuals, may come out at anything between 1,800 and 2.000 millions sterling. FOOTIXG THE BILL. On the general question of war expenditure, M. Leroy-Beaulieu draws the interesting conclusion that . money is above all necessary before the outbreak of war, in the work of preparation, and after the-war over in order to clear up accounts, but that it is least required during the period of the war itself. As to the squaring-up of .these gigantic accounts, M. Leroy-Beaulieu, judging from precedents, assumes that the period of liquidation will probably extend over -.to.five years. During this lime,-he says ,the greater part of the savings of the. whole n'vilised world will be absorbed by subscriptions to national loans, and the whole machinery of eco- i nomic progress will have to slow down. On the other hand, he suggests, modern society possesses such extraordinary powers of recuperation that if appeal is made, as in 1871, to the vitalitv of the I national" resources, the burden "may be boTho without danger of collapse. That ! is M. Leroy-Beaulieu's one crumb' of | comfort. . I I