THE COST OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1919, Page 5

THE COST OF THE WAR.

MEN AND MONEY. London, Nor. 20. Down to the eve of the armistice, Mr. Macpherson told the House of Commons.' last Tuesday, the total British casualties had exceeded 3,000,000, and of this number no fewer than 858,704 had been officially reported killed. There is proly ably another 100;000 dead among the 35!),000 returned as missing, so that Ihree-quartors of a million is a fair estimate of tho total number killed. TheBritish Empire contributed some 8,000,000 men to tho fighting forces of the Allies, or rather more than 12 per cent, of the population of the United Kingdom and the Colonies, the largest contribution on the Allied side. So far as there are reliable figures available, only one . other of the belligerent nations made a begger effort, Germany's army of 10,■OOO,OOO being 12.5 per cent, of its population, including the Colonies. Excluding the small Powers which declared war on the Central Empires, but which took no part in the fighting, approximately 45,000,000 men have been ' engaged in the various theatres of war, or 7.5 per cent, of a total belligerent population of about 650,000,000. The total casualties exceed 20,000,000, and the death-roll is not less than 8,000,000 i < It is difficult to visualise the meaning j)f these stupendous figures. If all the killed could march past in column of ' four, at the regulattion British Army quick time marching pace, it would occupy over three weeks for the sad pro- • cession to pass, marching day and night without cessation. The British dead alone would need fifty hours to pass, : and tho total British casualties 200, > hours. The wounded and killed of all the belligerents would be marching in mournful procession night and day for nine weeks. The value ot the gold reserves of the principal State banks of tho world the, , year the war started was £820,000,000, or barely one-fortieth of the cost of ~ the war. The world's total annuel production of gold is not quite £IOO,OOO,- 'i 1000, so that to pay the war bill in gold it would need all the gold produced from ■ the world's mines, at the present rate of •; production, for the next three centuries. One ounce of gold is worth £4 4s lljd, and from this it is easily calculated that £32,000,000,000 worth of . gold would weigh 230,592 tons. Another comparison. One cubic foot of gold is worth £74,340 and weighs 1,20 ft lb. A nugget of gold sufficient to pay the war bill would, therefore, occupy 430,<04 ' > cubic feet, or form a solid block of gold #• measuring 75J feet each way. Assuming the dome of St. Paul's has a diameter of 00ft (which is very nearly correct), and that it were a solid golden hemisphere, it would weigh 204,484 tons, but its value would fall short of the amount the belligerents liavo spent on the war by nearly. ;£4,OOQ,OOH.QOtt-