THE WAR BILL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 8, 10 May 1915, Page 4

THE WAR BILL.

How to pay the hill of the great war cost is discussed hv the Daily Express which toils us that it is calculated that the interest on the war loans, the pensions, and other charges will add an extra hundred million pounds a year to the national expenses. Of course there is no possibility of this increase being balanced even partially by economics in other directions. Indeed, it will lie almost impossible for any Chancellor of the Exchequer to avoid accompanying increases lor the various schemes of social reform to which Britain is pledged, and which the war has only postponed. Already the existing sources of taxation are strained severely. The Express considers that to throw fresh and enormous burdens on income and savings—the two victims of what is called direct taxation—will inevitably hamper the development of industry, strangle enterprise, and lead to appalling unemployment. Tile area of taxation therefore, must be widened, and the Government, while it ensures ilsed the income that is absolutely necessary. must endeavour to increase the industrial capacity ol the British Isles and to develop an economic partnership—the Tariff Commission sug gests with the overseas dominions, but Mr Wells goes further and proposes with the Empire’s allies. In conclusion, the Express says that distress and starvation were the price paid by tin l British cpopic for the Napoleonic wars. Long-sighted statesmanship must make it impossible for any such consequence to follow the present great struggle. British manufacturers are beginning to discover how completely they have been at tin* mercy oi foreign supply. Industries on which greater industries depend—like the manufacture of aniline dyes—have I)f>f>u allowed to become German monopolies, and even now we are hampered in the attempt to establish them in Great Britain by crazy devotion to

obsolete economic doctrines. The only way in which the .Empire can hope to face the war’s heavy harden is by the State protection of home industries, with consequent work for the worker and profit for the investor. One point the English paper overlooks is that Germany and Austria.; will surely have to pay at least a, portion of the big hil! of cost.

A CANADIAN STO2Y

lieutor’.s Now York correspondent quotes the “New York Times” for the following facts in regard to land holdings of the German Emperor in Canada. Chief among these are lands in British Columbia running into hundreds of thousands of acres, and worth some millions of dollars. Although it ns not generally known that those "•eh Canadian lands belong to the Kaiser, the “Times” understands that the Dominion Government lias long been aware of the fact. A number of the Kaiser’s holdings have recently boon transferred to American citizens friendly to the Teutonic cause, and it is believed that the authorities at' Ottawa are making a thorough investigation- of the validity of these transfers. The question of the validity rests on whether the holdings are to. he regarded as belonging to a private' individual or whether the Kaiser is to lie considered as the representative of an enemy State. If the former interpretation holds, the Dominion officials are powerless to interfere, even though the individual concerned is the Sovereign of a hostile nation. Investigation shows that the Emperor also has a largo interest in the Hohenzollern block of the .New York City loan, the interest on which is payable through London.