THE COST OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 140, 31 October 1912, Page 4

THE COST OF WAR.

At one period of the negotiations which preceded the outbreak of war in the Balkans, diplomats expressed the opinion that a resort to arms was unlikely, because the countries involved could not stand the financial strain. Some little time ago the Italian Prime Ministe! stated that the war with Turkey had cost Italy sixteen million pounds, but lie did not say whether that sum included the cost of mobilising the reserves. Today it is a very costly thing to even mobilise troops, and it is known that the action of Austria in mobilising at the time of the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, cost some millions oi pounds. In order to prepare for eventualities in the Balkans, the Austrian Gorernment has asked for authorities totalling twelve million pounds. The cost of the wars of the past century was enormous. The American Civil War was estimated to have cost the nation 600,000 lives and £2,000,000, OUT). The war with Germany cost France £,116,000,000, not including the huge indemnity which she had to pay the conquerors. According to Mnlhall's "Dictionary of Statistics," published in 1892, the wars of ninety years, down to 1880, involved; an expenditure of over

three thousand million pounds, besides the loss of nearly four and a-half million lives. The wars of the present century have been very costly, both in men and in money. The Boer war cost Great Britain £222,974,000 and over twenty thousand men. The Russo-Japanese war was not of very great length, but the cost to Japan was £135,600,00(1. and she lost nearly eighty-five thousand men. The Russian figures are not available, but they must have been enormous. The Balkan nations have never been famed for their wealth, and it is certain that before the end of the war their finances will be strained to the utmost.