The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1914. THE COST OF WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 284, 28 November 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1914. THE COST OF WAR.

The present dreadful war in absolute] direct cash out]nv i s costing Great Britain alone over one million sterling each week, and the Empire is bound to find this huge sura or go under to a despot's foul ambition. When it is considered how huge the operations of Britain's Allies are, quite apart from any expenditure Germany is making, the total outlay is colossal. If good can come out of such evil it may be that the lef-son learned will be so severe that never again will Europe be deluged in blood. Naturally the struggle is going to add enormously to the debts of the nations, and the Mercantile Gazette points out that this increase will be most marked with Britain, because the Imperial •Government is acting generously towards the soldiers and sailors, and is also helping the smaller of the nations, Belgium, Servia and Greece having already been assisted. Wars have been the principal cause of the expansion of the national debt of Great Britain, and the following interesting table is given as showing how Britain's national debt has piled up and, at rare intervals, been reduced since 1688:

Year. Event. Total Debt. £ 1688—Revolution ... 664,260 1702—Accession of Queen Ann ... ... 12,767,225 1714—Accession of George I. ... ... 36,175,460 1727—Accession of George 11. ... ... 52,850,797 17^8—Spanish War ended 75,812,132 1763—Peace of Paris ... 132,716,000 1775—American War beguii 126,842,811 1784—American War end. ed 423,063,145 1792—French War begun 239,663,621 1802 —Peace of Amiens ... 537,653,908 1815—Peace of Paris ... 861,039,049 1854—Crimean War begun 804,226,351 1857—Crimean War ended 837,114,597 1897—Boer War begun ... 635,394,000 1903—800 r War ended ... 798,349,000 1905 ... ... ... 796,766,000 1906 ... ... ... V 88,990,000 1907 ... 774,165,000 1908 ... ... ••• 759,826,000 1909 75-1,121,000 1910 ... ... ... 762,463,000 1911 ... 733,072,000 1912 ... ... ... 685,232,000 1913 ... 074,744,481 1914 ... ... ... 061.473,700

Just alter the Battle of Waterloo, the highest point was reached and with a much smaller population was sometiling like £200,000,000 grater than in March, 1914. It is pointed out that the British Government lias always endeavored to redeem debt, and

in years of peace a good deal has been done in this respect. Besides the amount fixed by the sinking fund it. is the rule to apply whatever surplus may accrue to the extinction of debt. In this way a very great deal of debt reduction has been made since the Boer War, an average of about £IO,-j 00U,000 a year has been paid off by the operations of the Sinking Fund, and it can be seen that if the Government applies £4,000,000 of this: sum towards paying interest, the Go-1 vernment can borrow £100,000,000 'without finding it necessary to increase taxation, but that is not the British method of doing business, and already the Emergency Budget shows increased taxation totalling £50,000,000. The nation can stand the financial strain of the war better than any of the others engaged in the conflict, and of the big Powers Germany is less able to bear the cost than France, Russia and England. If Britain is suffering notwithstanding that her trade routes are open, and that only a small fraction of her population is at military service. What must the position be with Germany, whose oversea trade is at a standstill, and the bulk of whose industrial population is either fighting at the front, nursing wounds, or lying buried in the coun. try of the enemy?