BRITAIN'S WAR FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 170, 12 April 1919, Page 6

BRITAIN'S WAR FINANCE

A deficit for the financial . year which has just closed of nearly £1,700,000,000. may scorn to give the British taxpayers little cause for rejoicing... As .v matter, of. fact, however, it is distinctly a matter for congratulation that the. deficit is not very much larger. Britain has ended the year better off by hundreds of millions than it was anticipated she would be when jt opened. Tho estimated and actual revenue and expenditure for 1918-19, with the amount to be provided for by borrowing, is shown in the following table:— Estimated. Actual. Revenue 842,0f0,C00 669,020,825 Deficit 2,130.147,008 1,690.200,363 Expenditure : ... 2,972,197,0 M 2,579,301,188 Tho estimates here shown are as they were recently _ stated by the Economist. According to a cablegram published yesterday, the expenditure for the vear was less than the estimate by £398,234,000, but, taking the -Economist's figures as correct, it was actually less by £439.860,637. The same journal recently summarised Great Britain's war-time finance almost to the end of the financial year 1918-19 as follows : — Grand Total-Aug. 1, 1914 to Feb. 15, 1919. ' £ Total spent 9,257,732,969 Inc. in balances; 2.574.C91 Total 9,260.607,063 £ Raised by revenuo ... 2,477,269,544 Net borrowings 6,783,337,119 Total 9,260,607,063 Tho expenditure includes loans to Allied nations and the Dominions' which in November, 1918, aggregated £1,683,500,000. It was expected that by the end of March, 1919, this amount would be increased by £350,.000,000. Apart, therefore, from a sum of about £2,033,500,000 recoverable front her Dominions and Allies, Britain during the"war period spent something like £7,227,107,063 on her own account. Of this Vast outlay approximately £2,177,269,944—ju5t over one-third—was raised by revenue, leaving about £4,750,*000,000 represented by debt, As regards loans to Allied nations considerable sums advanced to .Russia are no doubt lost beyond recall, and may have to bo added to the net war debt.

For the whole Avar period Britain raised a third of her own expendi-ture-by .revenue, and more than a quarter, of her total outlay under all head*3j including loans to tho Allies and to the Dominions. During the financial year just ended she improved' upon this performance by providing for more than one-half of her total expenditure under all heads out of revenue. The revenue raised during 1918-19 amounted to nearly four and a half times that of the record pre-war year. These figures • point to a magnificent achievement if at the same time they emphasise tho terrible drain the war has imposed on British resources. Interest and sinkinir fund on Britain's war debt will in themselves call annually for an amount considerably greater than that of her pre-war revenue, and there is to be faced in addition a heavy outlay on repatriation, and an enormous annual outlay for many years on pensions. The aggregate burden is enormous, and there seems little likelihood of lightening it appreciably by collecting any large sum in compensation from Germany. Yet the wonderful financial and industrial effort compassed by the British nation since_ 191.4 must be taken to mean that it is quite capable of shouldering its war burden, enormous as it is, if only its component sections pull reasonably together.