£800,000,000 SPENT ON WARS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 19, Issue 21, 17 March 1908, Page 2

£800,000,000 SPENT ON WARS.

"While recognising that, as Lord Rothschild states, there arc vast numbers of people who 'are afraid of the Government, and will not invest their fortunes in home securities at the present time,' the opinion may be offered," says the "Scotsman, "that the chief causes of the. slackness of investment business and the degenerate condition of the markets are of a financial and economic rather than of a political character. If it were possible to make out a complete bill of costs, it would probably be found that the South African and the Russo-Japanese wars entailed in one way and another a destruction of wealth amounting to little short of eight hundred to a thousand millions sterling, upon which there were superimposed the San Francisco and Valparaiso disasters. To make good much of the ravages thus induced, enormous amounts of capital have been and are still being diverted from productive to unproductive purposes, such as the restoration of naval and military armaments."