£21,000,000 A DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1917, Page 2

£21,000,000 A DAY.

STAGGERING BILLS OP NATIONS AT WAR. GERMANY'S BLUFF. (By Manfred Emanuel in the London Express). The great appeal now, before the British public draws renewed attention tn tho enormous cost of war to each of the belligerent camps, and to the manner in which the various countries engaged in war have raised the necessary suras. It is impossible to calculate the real cost of tho great war The less of Hie, loss, of productive industry converted into destructive industry, the halt in industrial progress, the value of property destroyed—these are some of the important items that cannot be Bet down in pounds, shillings and pence. The direct money cost of the war may be estimated, however, with some accuracy, and the result is shown in the following table, which gives tho expenditure in round figures to December 31. 1916: mkt Britain ..rr.-.-..vv.'£2,574,800,000 Dominions, etc. .......... 250,000,000 British total £3,134,800,000 Franco L ..., ....... 2,440,000,000 Russia ».-.-. ...-. i 1,700,000,000 Italy ..;. ~ 800.000,000 Belgium „-.■. ~.>-« 98,000,000 Serbia .....' L . 3 06,000,000' Roumania ................. 50,000,000 Allies' -total . ■.?..,.-.. .. £8,278,800,000 Germany .., : .-...:.t! £2,020,000,000 Austria ........ ■.., 1,000,000,000 Turkey K '■.-.-.■ , 130,000,000 Bulgaria ...:.>..;...;.>......■ 75,000,000 Enemies' total \- £4,125,000,000 The cost is naturally on the up grade, and the present average daily expenditure is approximately: Allies .-.... .-.- £14,000,000 Enemies ~ '£7,000,000 We will now see how the leading nations have met and are meeting their staggering biils. FRANCE. The French Government has had recourse to two long-term loans, yielding £455,000,000 in cash. In November last the total of National Defence obligations and Treasury bills outstanding was £64o,ooo,ooo,'while the total note circulation is £660,000,000 (compared with £207,000.000 immediately before the war)".

' Total internal borrowings approximate £2,410,000,000; but the Government ami municipal authorities have in addition raised £135,000,000 in America, £41,000,000 from British investors and financial institutions. The actual cost of the»war to the end of 1010 is estimated at £1,940,000,000, but the total war credits voted have been £2,440,000,000, a truer gauge of the war outlay, because it includes large expenditure of a semi civil character which ha 9 arisen directly from the state of war.

France has made a great effort to provide a part of the war de'bt charges by additional taxation. A wide range of ne-iy imposts has been devised which, with the increase of existing will ultimately yield a very'substantai figure, RUSSIA. The Russian financial budgets never appear to err on the side of too much information, but it is clear that Russia is largely dependent on foreign credits to supply the sinews of war. To August 1, 1016, the actual war expenditure was figured at £1,104,000,000. The sum raised by internal loans has reached a total of £-.1.058,f100,000, while the advances made by the Bank of Russia to the State can only be estimated by the increase of the note circulation '(now £7f14,000.000. compared with £170,000,000 before the war) and the Treasury bonds m the hands of the bank of £53/'000,000. Advances made by Great Britain are not revealed, but the direct credits obtained in London amount to £30.000.000 in addition to £27,000,000 raised in the United States anil .t'ii.Cm.PfH) in Japan. The authorised amount of foreign credits is £550,000,000. ° '

ITALY. The war bill of Ttaly is comparatively 'mail, owing to that country's late entry" into the conflict. The actual cost of the war to the end of 1916 is estimated at £800,000,000, and of this amount £350,000,000 has been secured by long and short-term indebtedness within the country, and foreisn credits amounting to about £120,000,000. Current expenditure is at the rate of £40,000,000 a month, while the assistance rendered by tiie Bank of Italy may be measured by the increase in the note circulation from £63,000,000 to £148,000,000. Italy, as well as France, is raising a considerable sum by means of new taxation on novel lines, which is expected to yield £28,000,000 in the year 1016-17-a sum sufficient to meet nearly threefourths of the interest on the war cost to the end of 1910, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. Tho financial secrets of the Dual Monarchy have been well kept, and the weekly statements of the Australiangarian' Bank have been suspended since the beginning of the war. The loans for which particulars arc available amount to £734,000,000, but tho war costs must have considerably exceeded this figure. There can be no doubi that Austria-Hungary—as well as the minor conspirators, Bulgaria and Turkey—are unable to bear the' burden of war, and are financially, as.in so many otlier directions, dependent on Germany. The analysis of Germany's and Great Britain's positions has been left to the last, so that the contrusi. between them may be the more obvious.

GERMANY. The financing of the war by Germany has perforce been a matter of internal arrangement, owing to the dominating sea power of tho Allies, which would have rendered futile the creation of loans in the United States, because their equivalent in merchandise would never have reached tho Vaterland. The total amount raised in America is estimated at only £1,000,000! The total amount of war credits granted by the Reichstag has been £3,300,000,000, of which £2,307,000,000 has been provided by permanent loans. The expenditure by the end of March next which is not provided by long-term loans will ■ be about £1,000,000,000,

Notes of tin; loan banks outstanding aru stated to be £133,000,000, while the Reichsbank note circulation lias grown from £9.1,000,000 to £333,000,000, and the advances and discounts from £40,000,000 to £tio,oGo,oOo. Germany has made little effort to meet war charges by taxation. GREAT BKITAIX. j There is no need to enter into the details of fireat Britain's war bill, which by March !il next wag estimated to total £3,:>24.R0(>,0f10, including £800,000,000 advanced or to ho tdvunccd to the. Allies. l:cth tlnv-e figures will probably be exceeded. There is no need, moreover, to give the actual figures of the various lofins find other issues. The special point of interest, however, h tlio additional sum which will he yielded by the British taxpayer up to March 31, assuming that the current year's estimate of income will be realised, -whereas there is little dcubt that it will be largely exceeded. This total will be no less than £488,000,000, the product of additional taxation, quite apart from the normal revenue. An amazing achievement! To sura up the position, Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Franco and Italy, are providing largely for -war charges out of current revenue, whereas Germany (no longer even dreaming of subsidies), and her dependants are gambling with an empty Exchequer. The full measure of Germany's bluff and of her financial embarrassment will only be fully exposed on the day of peace.