The New Zealand Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1916. WAR FINANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9256, 25 January 1916, Page 4

The New Zealand Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1916. WAR FINANCE

Mr Bonar Law’s statement in the House of Commons that. the Government is thinking hard about the coordination, of all the financial resources of the Empire for the purpose of seeing the war through with united effort reads well. It is an unsuspected truth that the resources of the overseas are in comparison with those of the United Kingdom surprisingly largo. The statisticians agree—with the exception of the Germans—that the wealth of the United Kingdom at last reporting—l9l3—was 16,000 million sterling. The figures for the overseas in , 1903, compiled by Sir Robert Gillen, were: " ,

Canada 1,350,000.000 Australasia 1,150,000,000 India 3,000,000.000 South Africa 000,000,000 Remainder of Empire ... 1,20(1,000,000

Total ' ...........£7,300,000,000 That represents nearly one-half the wealth Of the United Kingdom. But that was in 1903. 'Two years' later the aggregate must have been considerablylarger, owing to natural development.. Probably Canada, Australasia, and; South Africa alone must have advanced in the period at least 33 per'cent., and they would supply another 1000 million to the aggregate.. India and the rest of the Empire have not gone back, wo may be sure. On the whole, then, at present date the aggregate wealth of the Empire outside of Great Britain must be substantially , more than half the Wealth of the United Kingdom. The income of the United : Kingdom Was estimated in 1907 at £2,150,000,000, while, the income of the rest of the Empire was stated by Sir Robert Qiffen in 1903 at £1,380,000,000. The figures show clearly enough that the wealth of , the Empire counts for more than 50 per cent, of the wealth of the Mother Country, whether you take capital for guide or whether you take income. ...

For the-moment the United Kingdom is doing the Vhole work of finance practically. She 19 helping the rest of the Empire with her credit, it is true. But that, is a very TMTerent thing from a co-ordinated, properly-propor-tioned effort all round, such as Mi Bonar Law announced to the House of Commons as imminent. Hero w 6 have one of the chances of’ the war. dread and uncertain. Where it,will lead us, how it will strike us, what effect it will have Upon our financial stability, it is impossible at the first blush of- the thing to form any conception. : Tlie need for something of the kind has been indicated by Air Asquith’s startling declaration that oven now the output of the munition 1 shops is not nearly up to the requirements of the nil n la what other directions the national resources are behirid-hand in their development we have no means of 'ascertaining. " But generally we un derstand the position well enough; We are involved in the greatest war of history ; we escaped dostfucion at the outset by the magnificent strategy of the French commander-in-chief on land, and the splendid ’handling of the British Navy at sea; we have thus obtained time to bring our war preparations up to something like the level of the .German preparations; we have discovered in the process that everything,| for many reasons’ which it is needless to go into here, is in a shockingly backward state; the main conclusion we have forced on us is that wo must use. the whole of the Empire, for the purposes of the war. if we are to hope for victory. It is h chso of the long pull, the strong pull, ami the pull all together, from the Orkneys to Nova Scotia, front Quebec to Wellington, from Wellington to Capetown, and from Capetown to Calcutta. The income and the capital are, as we have stated above. They are about to bo co-ordina-ted in the combined effort of the Empire.' At the outset of this new- departure, it is cheering to read that there are people who regard the Imperial reserves as adequate to any strain the war can bring on us. With . a capital of 24,000 millions, and an income of 3950 millions, that statement looks as if it could stand for the whole Empire. Compared with Germany, the income of the United Kingdom alone is £46 per head of population, against £29 in Germany. Moreover, it has been computed that the expenditure per head in the United Kingdom exceeds the expenditure per head in Germany by £ls a year. It has been concluded—by a writer in the

"Round Table”—that this extra expenditure m ght with profit be turned into a saving of £720,000,000 and used for the purposes of the war That increases the British record more than appears. The figures were compiled some years before the war) Since the war the allowances to the depend enfs of British soldiers and sailors are agreeable to all concerned, and, indeed, many of the women have been heard to declare that they never hhve had so much money in all their lives. On the other hand, the allowances to the dependents of the German soldiery are the subject of bitter conplant by reason of their . meagreness and of the impossibility of making both ends meet. In Britain, moreover, there is a determination—wnic/i is having practical effect—to curtail war profits, securing much in this way for the State. In Germany, on the other hand, the Junker arid the capitalist are masters. In thenpresence the Government is, dumb—their very humble servant. Even the Kaiser grovels before Von Hoydobrand, •‘The Uncrowned King, of, Prussia." The numerical strength of the Agrarian party is small, but its. in finance is paramount. Chancellors bow before it, Bulow, who refused, was crushed, Hollweg trembles before it from morning to night.. After Agadii, it was Heydebrand, who .flayed the’ Government —arid incidentally the Kaiser—alive for pusillanimity, and before August. 1914, it was this pernicious ruling class that insisted on • the war. • Since the war -it -has—waxed fat, and onlv the other day,, when an order to kill cattle would/have stopped scarcity, the Government; tnough 'pressed,, refused, because the agrarian profits are sacred, b milarly the- dividends of the insolent,.arid pampered Krupp firm maintain a buge~war level, and all capital, revels in the increased profits duo to the war. : At. the same, time, the proletariat starves,; and the dependents of the men who-are perishing at the rate of 300,000.. a. mtnth mourn in. ashes, but! must do without sackcloth, as they, cannot afford to pay the price. Already the Socialists are muttering at this abomination. Some day there may be an explosion: In Britain they are on the right track. When the Imperial resources are co-ordinated, the track Will be the fight track more than ever. -The enligntened expenditure and the superior average ot income per head are fairly good guarantees for the victory of the Empire.