DURING THE WAR AND AFTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15770, 19 November 1914, Page 6

DURING THE WAR AND AFTER.

It is early to discuss what may happen after the war, but the British Chancellor of the Exchequer has expressed the opinion that "the country would then have to face the most serious industrial situation it had ever confronted." After making every allowance, for the temperamental tendency to exaggerate of Mr. Lloyd George, who is at present concerned to explain the necessity for heavy taxation while British industries are " enormously occupied'' through the direct and indirect effects of belligerency, it must be recognised that he expresses a feeling very generally held in financial circles, but not necessarily sound. The war has not interrupted the general course of British industry. for, though its Austro-German markets are closed, Austro-German competition has been eliminated in the rest of the world. Moreover, an immense demand for military requirements has been created at the very time when from one to two million men are being withdrawn from civilian life. These conditions necessarily provide employment and j encourage trade, even though at the i expense of national capital. Mr. j Lloyd George fears the consequences of these conditions being reversed, of armies being disbanded, of military orders practically ceasing, of national capital being exhausted. Great distress historically followed the. Napoleonic Wars, and it has long been accepted that similar causes will always produce the same results, although many proofs exist that new and favourable factors may avoid pessimistic expectations. At this particular time, energetic action on the part of British manufacturers should recover permanently a great deal of the trade captured by German enterprise during recent years ; the effect of this would outlast the war. Exhaustion of national capital is a serious thing, but it should be easy for the United Kingdom alone to save fifty millions sterling on her annual "peace expenditure : ' on armaments when the German menace has been removed ; this alone represents a debt of more than one thousand millions, so that the load of taxation resulting from war expenditure need not be a crushing one. The great disturbance to trade and industry is likely to arise from the disbanding of the huge army. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, which could absorb with ease at any time an unlimited number of the men they send to the front, will not feel this disbanding excepting as an impetus to their production and prosperity; the re-absorption of a million men by the United Kingdom is not as simple a matter, especially when military factories are being closed. Yet the very intensity of the struggle, contains the remedy for its consequences It is a great n'ational war, a supreme struggle for existence, a reawakening of the individual consciousness that the nation is worth working for, fighting for, and dying for. Such a spirit hap already solved vast problems. It has prevented financial collapse, provided abundant food and material, choked domestic quarrels, given to the state unprecedented power and energy. Britain of today may well be expected to see to it that she is neither conquered in war nor shaken by a following peace. So far from the close of the war leading to " an unprecedented industrial situation " at which any need be alarmed, it is more likely to lead to industrial prosperity and social progress, in Britain as throughout civilisation.