The Press. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Tuesday, July 21, 1908. THE COST OF WAR.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 285, 21 July 1908, Page 4

The Press. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Tuesday, July 21, 1908. THE COST OF WAR.

The report which General Blume has presented to the German General Staff should certainly cause the nations to pause before appealing to the arbitrament of arms, and consider the awful misery and terrible cost a great war would entail. General Blume estimates that a European war of the same duration as the RussoJapanese war ivould cause at least 900,000 casualties. That would mean that several millions of people would be made to suffer bitterly on account of the loss* of loved ones, and in a great many cases of breadwinners, while thou-

sands of men would be maimed. That the General is not greatly over-estimating the losses a great war would cause is shown by the fact that the casualties of Russia and Japan in their war numbered 487,535. It says little for our boasted civilisation ~ when such p terrible suffering and waste of human life are permitted to continue. It is more than doubtful, too, if some of the things fought for are worth the cost in money and loss caused by interruption to trade. Russia’s expenditure on the wai with Japan was said to have been £209,000,000, and Japan’s expenditure was £117,000,000. But the losses to the two countries in other ways will never be known. General Blume says Germany would put 4.750,000 soldiers in the field in the next war, which would cost £300,000,000 annually. But that sum would not nearly represent the total annual cost to the nation of a war with another Great Power, so that the burden to the taxpayers would bo very heavy ; for though the population of the German Empire is about seventy millions, there is a large preponderance of females, and, of course, many children. It would be a very dangerous policy, though, for Britain to reduce her a.imaments, unless, at the same time, the other nations reduced theirs proportionately. It is not always the strongest nation that rushes into war, for if satisfied regarding her strength she- can better afford to await events. We hope that the King will continue to use his powerful influence among the nations in tiie direction of preventing appeals to arms, and that he will receiv e the assistance of other rulers in his beneficent work.