THE PRICE OF PEACE-£700,000,000 PER ANNUM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1109, 14 June 1913, Page 4

THE PRICE OF PEACE-£700,000,000 PER ANNUM.

, Several .startling particulars of the present military and naval expenditure the nations of the world are to be found in an article in the June Review of Reviews, entitled, “Beggar-my-Neigbbour in Europe.’’ It appears that this mad- race in armaments is costing no less a siim than £ 500,000,000 annually iu hard cash. If we add to this the economic loss caused by diminished production and abandoned study owing to Conscription, reckoning at the’rate of ouly£i,per week for each conscript, we find the nations lost in 1912 £2 j 0 ,000,000 over and above the actual cash spent; so that to maintain peace it cost the; colossal sum of £700,000,000. ; Of the great aci deration' in the' race of armaments the writer saj's ;

The, great acceleration of this race of armaments, will tax the wealth and the patience of the people to tire uttermost. It wi I almost double Europe's military burden by the increase of taxation and the simultaneous in;.ti eduction of the three years’ service (or all able-bodied youths. The laUst development of Europe’s military . preparations may impoverish Continental Europe aud drive it to’..despair. It will certainly,increase popular dissatisfaction, strengthen Socialism, and may-lead either to great internal upheavals of to a great war. Wars are frequently brought about .'by. economic pressure. "The ruinoqs acceleration which is taking place in the armament ; race may create among the nations of the Continent the conviction that war is cheaper than peace, and that it is, after all. the smaller evil.