The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1915. THE COST OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1915. THE COST OF THE WAR.

It is, of course, common knowledge that war is a costly undertaking, but just as there has never yet been such a great war as that which is now raging, so there lias never been such a colossal expenditure attendant on its prosecution. Scientific modern inventions in connection with engines of destruction have completely changed methods of attack and defence, while the regions of conflict have been extended to the air above and to the depths of the Ma. To fittingly equip and maintain the various branches of naval, military, and aerial i(wu with the latest and moat seentiflo

weapons is a vastly different concern to the methods in vogue in relation to armed warfare in the Middle Ages, aud the cost of the one bears m relation whatever to that of the other. We have only to grasp the startling fact that the daily cost of the present war to the British Government is in the vicinity of live millions sterling, in order to realise the enormous drain on the nation's resources that lias been, and is, ] going on, while if we lake into account the daily cost which lias to be borne by our Allies and our enemies, we may well stand aghast at the woeful waste of lives and treasure for which the Kaiser's dream of world domination is responsible. Up to the present, Britain's net cxpendiimp stands at £1.002,000,000, an amount that few people can readily' realise, and yet the time for the end of this titanic struggle is as indefinite as it was twelve months ago. The interesting statement made by the British Premier. Mr. Asquith. in ihc House of Commons on Wednesday last, enables us to estimate the magnitude of the financial side of the war. In asking for a further vote of four hundred millions, Mr. Asquith stated that the amount would be sufficient to carry on until the middle of February. There has been a persistent upward tendency in the expenditure ever since the war commenced, but it would appear as if it had now reached high water marlc. Britain has not only been called upon to face her own expenditure, but has had to help her Allies financially, as well as provide loans for the Dominions. There is, however, no sign of dismay, nor any outcry at the burden. The Empire recognises that no matter what the cost it must be faced cheerfully and courageously in order to achieve the object in view. Whether or not Germany can continue much longer to bear the economic strain does not enter into the question at all. The death blow has to be given to the disturber of 'the world's peace, and to accomplish this the Allies are resolved to use their last shilling and their last man.