BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 129, 7 January 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

OUR RESERVE POWER IS ENORMOUS, BUT WE MUST EXERT IT TO THE UTTERMOST. By Sir LEO CHIOZZA MONEY, M.P. After fourteen months of war the economic, financial, naval, and military conditions of the United Kingdom enable us to say with confidence that while we have already exhibited powers the extent of which was unsurpassed by our enemy, we have still in reserve such an abundance of unexploited strength that to develop it is to play a decisive part in the war. That is to speak of the United Kingdom alone, but outside these islands we have wonderful resources in man power, in food, and in materials, and there is not the slightest doubt that these, too, will be fully developed if and when necessity arises. Without resort to the extraordinary manufacture of paper credits to which Germany has been driven, we have successfully floated two war leans, the first of £331,000,000 and the second of upwards of £600,000,000. While doing this we have raised additional taxation of nearly £170,0100,000 per annum. Gigantic as these sums appear, they represent efforts so well within our strength that no appreciable inroad has been made upon luxurious expenditure, while our working classes have never before been as well paid. Not only have many wage rates risen, but unemployment has disappeared, paujjrism has greatly declined, and the feeding of poor children in the schools has fallen to a negligible quantity. There is universal agreement among all au. thorities that the nation can bear with, equanimity a much heavier degree of taxation than has yet been proposed. BIGGER NATIONAL INCOME AHEAD. There is no doubt that, as far as the bulk of the working classes is concerned, their additional earnings have more than compensated for a rise in food prices of about 40 per cent. It should not be imagined that the cost of living has risen by 40 per cent., however; tho true figure is certainly less than that, .he rise of about ens-third applying to foodstuffs alone. There has also been a certain substitution in foodstuffs which has helped to alleviate the rise. Altogether, save in certain /pedal cases, the working classes are enjoying an exceptional prosperity. There has naturally been a check in the prosecution of public improvements and of the application of prirate capital to some industries. On the other hand, quite a number of new businesses have been established, and old ones developed as a consequence of the war, and there is not the slightest doubt that the economic position of the country will be vastly improved after the war. For my own part. I apprehend that with. in twenty years oi the close of the war the British national income will rise to £3,0J0,000,000 a year, and that that income will be Detter distributed than a smaller national income was distributed before the war. There will be an improvement ir. wage 5 rates and in labour conditions generally. As to the naval position, the United Kingdom remains impregnable, the larger part of German commerce has been brought to _n end, and the German mercantile marine has been either captured or interned. Every tribute must be paid to the consummate skill with which Germany has, by scientific processes, contrived to carry on a considerable part of her normal activities by Lie development of her own resources supplemented by such reduced supplies as she can obtain from abroad. We must recognise that German patriotism, directed and aided by a Governmental policy of rationing and of commandeering supplies, has worked marvels in sustaining Germany in a protracted war. It is important to note, too, that Germany has gained possession of large and valuable productive territories in Belgium, France, and Russia, and that she has now at her disposal some two million ablebodied prisoners, who have become hewers of wood and drawers of water for their conquerors. Nevertheless, Germany can never regain anything like her normal economic status without the consent of the Allies, however long the war lasts, because of Biitish sea-powar. A BOUNDLESS MIGHT. As to food and materials generally, we have the whole world open to our economic demands because our fleets command the seas. Not only the magnificent resources of our own Colonies but those of all the world are at our disposal. We have the great manufacturing power of the United Kingdom free tc supply military materials; we have also the greatest manufacturing Power in the world, the United States of America, willing and. indeed, eager, to supply us—and willing-llso to postpone payment for that which she supplies to

us. What reserves of men have we? The answer is one which shows that Germany will have no chance when our reserves of manhood are organised and put in the fieici. To speak of the United Kingdom alone, we have nearly ten million men aged eighteen to forty-live. So that, after fourteen months' of war, we have only employed one-fourth of those men in (he Army. When we make the biggest allowance for ineffective.? and for men of military age requlred to make munitions and to carry on 0"r essential export trade, we see that we have a reserve of fighting manhood which can only he expressed in millions. But that Is to speak of the T niled Kinedom alone. What of the British Empire? In the British Dominions outside these islands there are fourteen millions of white people, among whcin then- „re some three million more men of the ages under consideration. And that, again, is to say nothing of the magnificent resources in lighting men which can be furnished by the peoples of India and of the other far-flung territories which rcnstitii e the greatest Empire that the world has over seen. To contemplate these resources is to be convinced that we can exercise what is, for practical purposes, a boundless might.