THE BREAKING POINT.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 802, 12 November 1915, Page 8

THE BREAKING POINT.

When Will the Hun be Hard Up ?

THE . old proverb that "it's .money that makes the mare to go," applies. to war just as it does to the enterprises of peace. "It's the Jast lapthat wins the race," as the King recently reminded' us, and in that last lap finance will play no small role. Writing to London "Spectator" from the Hague, a friendly Dutch correspondent contends that available and reliablefigures support his view that "Germany will be beaten economically and financially in the not distant future." We only , hope and pray, he may be right. The Dutch statistician refers to a recent article in "The Round Table," in. which it is stated that an expenditure of £4,000,000 a day, or £1,460,000,000' a year, represents about half Great Britain's income. Now. in the German Reichstag Dr. Helferich recently declared that the war is costing the" Huns alone £5,000,000 a day, that is £1,825,000,000 a year. The highest estimate (a German estimate) of Germany's income is" forty milliards of marks, or two, thousand million pounds sterling a year, so that the Huns are spending ninetenths of their annual income on the war. against England's one-half. Now, see what this means, says our Dutch friend, in effect, if not in these actual, words. Germany, he points but, has now only about £200,000,000 left out of" her average annual income to sustain seventy million people. That is lessthan £3 per head per annum. * # * * Compare this with the position of Great Bi-itain, which has a surplus of, roughly, £1,400,000,000, wherewith, to* sustain forty millions of people, that is, £31 per head per annum. The Dutchman concludes his letter by declaring that "with the growing military, efficiency and the superior financial stamina of the Allies, Germany, has what Americans call 'no show.' " She probably realises this ; hence those repeated ballons d'essai in th© shape of peace rumours. The fact is that Germany is gambling on a- win which won't como off. But—and do not let us forget it —- the very fact that she knows that her only hope of future financial salvation lies in. squeezing a colossal indemnity out of England will make her more determined than ever to secure final victory. It may savour of a paradox, but Germany's growing financial weakness actuallv makes for a more desperately strenuous prosecution of the war on her part. It' will be many weary months yet, we fear, before the break-mg-point is reached. \