COST OF THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1306, 3 October 1914, Page 4

COST OF THE WAR.

No war chronicled by history will have devoured such huge sums of money as the present battle of the nations. Writing from Paris on August 17, the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent says ; —“The minimum cost is estimated here by economists at The figures given by military writers coincide and agree that about 8,500,000 men are under arms for land warfare. To these must be added 340,000 seamen, If the Balkan War can be taken as an example, the cost of each man mobilised amounts to 10s a day. This gives about daily, or monthly. This figure is, however, considerably short of the mark, because it does not take into account the maintenance of the armies and fleets. The German Reichstag authorised extraordinary expenditure to the extent of ,£250,000,000, to be obtained by a loan, and a further sum of to be drawn on the gold and silver reserve of the Empire. It is now well known that the tax of 5 per cent, on the stock of notes issued by the Reichsbank over and above its reserve in metal has been sup pressed. The German Government will therefore secure the loan required by an issue of bank notes uncovered by a reserve of gold and silver. This Issue reminds one o( the assignats of the first French revolution, of which a lew samples are kept as curious heirlooms in French families. It is staled here that the Austrian army on a war footing costs the Empire ,£BOO,OOO a day, but the Austrian Treasury was emptied by the mobilisation during the Balkan wars, which drained the financial sources of the Empire for more than a year, and it is hard to see where the Aus trian Monarchy can find the £24,000,000 required to keep the Imperial and Royal armies and navy during the great war jusi opened. The above figures are probably far short of the reality, and it is therefore difficult to see how the Central Europe?!- Ivu pires can support a . ..pt cod arduous war from the financ-H and economic point of view."