New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915: April-September, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915: April-September, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
For reasons the validity of which the committee has recognized on
previous occasions, I do not think it desirable to give the precise
details of the items which make up the total, but without entering into
that I may roughly apportion the expenditure. For the army and the navy,
according to best estimates which can at present be framed, out of the
total given there will be required approximately £275,000,000. That is
in addition, as I have already pointed out, to the sum voted before the
war for the army and the navy, which amounted in the aggregate to a
little over £80,000,000. That leaves unaccounted for a balance of
£87,000,000, of which approximately £38,000,000 represents advances for
war expenditure made, or being made, to the self-governing dominions,
Crown colonies, and protectorates, as explained in the Treasury minute
last November, under which his Majesty's Government have undertaken to
raise the loans required by the dominions to meet the heavy expenditure
entailed upon them on the credit of the imperial exchequer. In addition
to that sum of £38,000,000 there has been an advance to Belgium of
£10,000,000, and to Serbia of £800,000. Further advances to these allies
are under consideration, the details of which it is not possible yet to
make public. The balance of, roughly, £28,000,000 is required for
miscellaneous services covered by the vote of credit which have not yet
been separately specified.
I think the committee will be interested to know what the actual cost of
the war will have been to this country as far as we can estimate on
March 31, the close of the financial year. The war will then have lasted
for 240 days and the votes of credit up to that time, assuming this vote
is carried, will amount to £362,000,000. It may be said, speaking
generally, that the average expenditure from votes of credit will have
been, roughly, £1,500,000 per day throughout the time. That, of course,
is the excess due to the war over the expenditure on a peace footing.
That represents the immediate charge to the taxpayers of this country
for this year. But, as the committee knows, a portion of the expenditure
consists of advances for the purpose of assisting or securing the food
supplies of this country and will be recoverable in whole, or to a very
large extent, in the near future. A further portion represents advances
to the dominions and to other States which will be ultimately repaid. If
these items are excluded from the account the average expenditure per
day of the war is slightly lower, but after making full allowance for
all the items which are in the nature of recoverable loans, the daily
expenditure does not work out at less than £1,200,000.
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