THE WAR REVIEWED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 21

THE WAR REVIEWED.

HUGE CREDIT VOTES. (By Cable.) In the House of Commons, Mr A. Bonar Law (Chancellor of the Exchequer), in moving a credit of £600,000,000, pointed out that it was the largest single credit ever asked for. Pie anticipated an increase in the daily expenditure, but required the sum to last to the end of June. The daily average expenditure from December 1 to February 9 was £6,107,000. The expenditure on army and navy munitions exceeded the Budget estimate by £664.000 daily. Loans to the Allies and the dominions exceeded the Budget estimate by £339,000 daily, and miscellaneous expenditure by £243,000 daily. The item of £39,750,000, represented as advances to the dominions, was not a loan, but it meant that dominion troops in Britain were largely supplied by our arrangements at Home. The increased expenditure was largely due to the extension of the Palestine and Mesopotamia operations, and the increased personnel of the army. But the principal cause was the increased quantity and cost of commodities. Loans to our allies on Februarv 9 stood at £1,264,000,000, and loans to" the dominions at £180,000,000. He estimated that the National Debt at the end of the financial year would be about £5,900,000,000. Surveying the war situation, Mr Bonar Law said : " We have knowledge that the Germans promised Turkey that they would expel the British from Mesopotamia, but the Germans have been forced to abandon, these plans. " Though Germany hoped to secure much food from Russia, the British Government's information is that the food produced in Russia this year will barely supply Russia herself. From every point of view it is unlikely that Germany will be able to exploit Russia. " We probably have a slight superiority in men and guns on the western front, and we are overwhelmingly superior in the air. Our forces in France "have been working to their utmost capacity to strengthen our defences, and the results are wonderful. We used more barbed wire in January and February than in the whole of 1917. I am somewhat sceptical about the German offensive. " The general position at Salonika is unsatisfactory, but this is due to Russia's collapse. We did not expect a year ago to be purely on the defensive, but the General Commanding recognised that the position at Salonika might become dangerous, as the Central Powers, with their better communications, might send forces which it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to meet. But Germany's man-power is not inexhaustible. She can-, not do everything at once; and she would pay dearly for every yard of advance. It is, not difficult to,'justify the expedition. If it had not been sent. Germany would have controlled the Greek harbours, which are vital for us. If the enemy secured them and used them as submarine bases, it would be almost impossible to keep up our communications with Egypt. " Our victories in Mesopotamia and Palestine constitute not only a moral and material gain, but mean an immense military accession of strength. Lord Kit-' chener estimated that the troops necessary to save Egypt from invasion would be far larger than our total forces now operating in Mesopotamia and Palestine." '.> Continuing, he said he had no doubt that if the Allies held together they could secure the results which they had set out to achieve. Unless the Germans learnt that war did not pay and that it was no longer possible to group men together who could plunge the world in misery, peace would be a defeat for the Allies. If the question of continuing''the Avar was submitted to a referendum of the people of Britain the result would astonish the enemy and ourselves.. TWO KEYS TO THE WORLD POSITION. Mr Asquith, in a speech at CouparAngus, said that there were two keys to the world position—the command of the seas and the. west front—and both remained in the Allies' hands. The submarine inroads on the mercantile marine and the collapse of Russia presented new and formidable dangers, but they did not fill us with- apprehensions. The so-called peace negotiations were an instructive contrast between Germany's protestations and intentions. While Count Hertling was professing the acceptance of President Wilson's four principles, welcoming a court of international arbitration, and approving a league of nations to which the bulk of us here and in America look as the only effectivesafeguard, his subordinates were writing in terms not of. a treaty but of a capitulation as harsh and humiliating as any in history, and ruthlessly, recklessly mutilating a great national unity. If this treaty were carried out it would sow the seeds of conflicts and embroil the nations for generations.