TREMENDOUS COST OF WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13091, 3 June 1913, Page 8

TREMENDOUS COST OF WAR.

Dr. Charles Richet, a professor in the University of. Paris, has recently calcu'-j lat-ed the cost of a European war at the present day. It is impossible, of course, to control 'all his estimates, but, nevertheless, this interesting attempt deserves attention. ' Should a war break out tomorrow, he says, over the question of a Servian harbor on the Adriatic, or tho frontiers of Albania, the triple alliance and the triple entente would together be forced to mobilise, roughly, 20,000,000 men, of whom at least half would bo' Sfent to the front. On tho basis of oflfi- j cial statistics, he works out this mobilisation by land and sea as follows: — Germany 3,600,000 Britain 1,500,000 \France t 3,400,000 lltaly ..." • 2,800,000 Austria 2,600,000 ' Roumania - ... 300,000 Russia 7,000,000 ' 21,200,000 More striking still is the expense per day, which Europe would incur through keeping these huge armies in tho field. Dr. Richet calculates tho cost as follows :-— ..._

Provisioning pf troops ... ... 2,500,000 Feeding of Jiorses 200,000 Pay '- <-'... 8r»o,ooo i Wages of arsenal and harbor per- I sonnel 200,000 Mobilisation (on average 100 kilo- j metres spread over 10 days) 400,000 j Transport of foodstuffs, weapons, j ...etc.-. ... 800,000, Ammunition — Infantry (10 rounds per man | per day) 800,000 ' Artillery (10 shots per gun 'per | day) 250,000 Ship artillery (two shots per | gun per day) 75,000 Fitting out of army 800,000' Ambulance (500,000 wounded or | ill at 4s per day) 100,000 Movement of ships (six hours' journey per day) ... 100,000. Deficit in taxes (25 per cent) ... 2,000,000 Support for population without J means (9d per day for 10 per I cent, of population) 1 , .'-50,00.0 ' Requisitions, damage to towns, j bridges, etc. ... 400,000 j Total £10,825,000 ! That is to sayi without taking intoi account tao inevitable rise iti the coat' of all tho necessaries of life and the' destruction of warliko material, to say '■ nothing of tho loss of men, such a wai\ would cost Europe verv nearly £11,000,- j 000 per day. *