Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17088, 21 August 1917, Page 4

The United Kingdom's share in the total expenditure on the war 'has been officially given as £3,900,000,000 to the end of last March, including £900,000,000 advanced to the Allies. These loans being eliminated as probably included in tihe expenditure of the Governments to which they were made, it is calculated that up to the end of last month Great Britain's net share of the war cost was about £3,550,000,000. This amount would, however, be increased to £3,700,000,000 by the addition of the estimated war expenditure of the dominions and the Indian Empire. The expenditure by France on the war in three years is set down at £3,065,480,000; that of Russia, more difficult to ascertain, is reckoned as not less than £3,000,000,000; while that of Italy is computed at £624,000,000. After taking Belgium, Serbia, and Rumania also into consideration, Mi Jennings concludes that the outlay of the Allies amounted to £10,500,000,000. Germany's expenditure was believed to amount some months ago to £4,260,000,000, at which time that of Austria-Hungary could hardly have been less than £2,500,000.000. There seems no reason to doubt that at the end of July the expenses of the wa.r considerably exceeded £18,000,000,000, independently of the contribution of Japan and the United States. Moreover, this stupendous figure is increasing every day.

" A continuation of tile war after July," writes Mr Jennings, " will be accompanied by new expenditure at the rate of much more than eighteen millions 'a day, in addition to the costs of the United States. Whether Germany and her allies will be able to prolong their resistance through another winter is more than anyone can say with confidence; but it may be taken as proved, so far as figures can prove anything, that the war cannot possibly end with a smaller cost than from £20,000,000.000 to £25,000,000,000. It may help to a realisation of wlxait this means to state that if the lower amount could be represented by sovereigns placed edge to edge m a straight line such a line would be nearly 300,000 miles long." This enormous expenditure by the nations has only been rendered possible by the raising of the greater part of the money by loans, on which interest will have to bo paid for years to came, and in the day of reckoning the countries that have been piling up debt without proper provision for adequate revenue expansion will have particular reason to regret tlheir lack of foresight. There is some consolation in the reflection that in the forefront of these countries will be Germany. To come to the end of the war bill for three years, as estimated by Mr Jennings, we have to add to the expenditure of £18,000,000,000 already mentioned various other items as follows:—lnterest liability, £500,000,000; economic value of lives sacrificed, £5,120,000,000; material damage, £500,000,000, and dislocation of trade, £150,000,000; —making the grand total of his estimate £24,270,000,000. These calculations axe conjectural and to some extent unsatisfying, for the world's agony is not to be reduced to terms of hard cash, but the figures are more than impressive, They are too colossal for the brain of any but a financier to grasp their full significance.