1918-01-12 — Page 7

£5,000,000,000. BRITAIN'S WAR COSTS UP TO SEPTEMBER

4860 A YEAR TO GUARD A SINGLE POST

Some remarkable figures showing our enormous war expenditure and one valuable suggestions for more effective control are set out in the first report of the Select Committee on National Expen y. Here, in brief, diture issued recently.

war bill of September we had

to the end.

5,000 million sterling Against this 1321 millions will be owing by our Allies, Dominions and India

our

end

3,000 3,000 millions have been added to the National Debt.

do expenditure does If the present, daily not increase, each six months of war will involve a gross addition to the

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12ra.

WHAT IS THE NAVY DOING? EXERCISING COMMAND OF THE

SEA

BRITISH FLEET SUPREME.

This question is often asked by those who bear a great deal of the fighting out the Ypres.Menin road, the Rasschendaele ridge, and in the vicinity of Langemarck and Poelcapelle, but who never hear any- thing about the Navy, except when a

*.

cruiser or destroyer is torpedoed or mined or when naval airmen drop bombs on the Zeebrugge locks, the docks at Ostend, or the aerodrome, behind the Flanders coast. Great things have been expected from the Navy, and yet in the public view it ap-

debt of about 1,000 millions pears to be doing nothing, while the

If interest be taken at five per cent and an allowance made for Binking Fund

the gross

addition to the annual debt

chemy's U-bouts carry on their depreda tions apace. Money has never been denied

charge consequent upon each six months to the Navy. Countless millions have

of

war ch the present

about £80,000,000 £45,000,000

that

Lendi

The

the

would be

addition

the com

beon

expended upon it, and battleships.

and RAFE fof prodigious striking power have been

With these figures before mittee issue a warning. While agreeing that success must not be imperilled by the stinting of money necessary to achieve the end in view, they point out is on a scale so im

which mense the burden of cest steadily accumulating, will involve annual charges that will threaten so gravely our future finance that the committee are of opinion that consid erations of cost must be put on a dif- ferent plane from that which they have hitherto occupied.

APPEAL TO THE TROOPS,

The committee suggest that the War Office should send to all commands a let ter emphasising the need for further should be

economics,

made to every soldier of the

built in great numbers, with cruisers and vessels of every clase, and officers and men have been provided in ever-increasing numbers. It is not to be questioned that there is a certain dissatisfaction at the and apparent inactivity of the Navy, undoubtedly the Army occupied a very much arger place in the public mind, and, it is to be feared, in the public estima tion (saya the Daily Chronicle).

A little acquaintance with naval history und a full realization of the existing con ditions of naval warfare would show that discontent with the attitude of the Navy is wholly unreasonable Great battles are are events in aval operations, but the

in all our wars, and has never been so

and that an ard of sale pressure of sen power has been continuoug guarding his arms, ammunition and effective, as in the present war. No ONG equipment. The War Offee should bring would welcome action more enthusiasti Pre upon the more wasteful units.

committee are impressed by the cally than the othcors and men of the of the number of army units Grand Fleet, but it takes two to make a at home, and consider that battle, and the enemy keeps close to port.. the matter should be again reviewed as There was much talk at one time of dig a whole by the General Staff and the ging the rais out of their holes and Trom time to time there is advocacy of War Cabinet

large operations of adventurous character. But if these imply that the Grand Fleet

Three instances are quoted where re

be effected P for (1) The cost for the guarding of a post by a single sentry of the Royal Detenes Corps, is no less than £550 year The number of such posts and the methods of staffing them should be

is in

and

port an immense accumulation of used brass shell cases and wooden the value of of several

millions nients do not appear to have been made for their return and re-use, and mean- while the manufacture of new brass

bazer proceeds cases-and-wood.cn.

holds Adequate arrange-

is to knock at the gate, of Wilhelmshaven, defying mines and guns of enormous power, mounted in secreted positions, those who advocate such operations can and no justification in the experiences of the past, nor in the conditions of the present time.

THE BRITISH FLEET SUPREME, What the Fleet has done from the very beginning of the war, and is doing at the present time, is to exercise command of the fen The Germans claimed the Jutland Battle is a victory but it (3.) There is u u considerable wastage changed, the situation in no degree What arme ammunition by the ever. The British. Fleet remained supreme troop Cartidges being sometimes the bemy was powerless to more, and thrown away unused to lessen the transport operations of stupendous

the bandoliers

character were undertaken which have COST OF MUNITIONS. We brought against the Germans the formid Considerable attention has been deable military machine directed by Sir voted by the committee to the operations Douglas Haig. It is literal truth, in of the Ministry of Munitions, and they the words once used by Lord Fisher, that instances of lack not a soldier has gone abroad but asalior A scries of made. nag carried him on his back. Not only at the beginning of the war, when the (1) That, one of the Parliamentary Secre original Expeditionary Force went to taries should be charged with the finance France, bat on every day in every hour of the Ministry and be responsible to since the Navy has been at work sleep

and have power to initiate Parliament hard the interests of the essly to guard every transport which has

and certatione ora

of financial

steps to

sible he financial consideration, of programmes

eressed the sca

That he should be respon. What meant by the disembarkation es and the financial aspect of of an army of a million, men, with all national fac

factories

and allocation fits, guns and mighty volumes of muni tions of every kind, its hospitals and railway service, its armoured cars and tanks, and every equipment which a medern army requires can be better imagined than described. We cannot feel

Huve

They courider that the Government should taken steps to establish auch measure of Treasury control as would have enabled the Treasury to satisfy itself that capital expenditure and contoo profoundly our gratitude to the Navy tracts for munitions were being made for its arduoug work and unremitting toll only on terms that were carefully con in safeguarding the national interests sidered and were reasonable war condi-

afloat, not only on the lines of communi- cation to France, but in the support of

ces of want of co-ordination 0 the operations at Salonika, in Egypt and

between different Government Palestine in East Africa and Mesopo- departments have been brought to the notice of the committee, In the words tamin, and wherever the armies are fight ing. The Navy has protected a continuous

of the Treasury representative who gale stream of supplies from across the evidence, the Treasury have from time to time made efforts to stop competitive Atlantic, has driven enemy commerce from the scas, and has brought about the but they have darkening every place in the buying by departments, but

There is au

not had much testing disclosure in THE BLOCKADE that part of the report dealing with the

Wheat

of the

Commission Wheat

sun

The blockade is in the hands of the

E dire the Aus all conditions is very little known to the

largest purchase made by the Navy and the arduous and exacting was 14 million quarters of future of the service in all weathers and involving people at large. There has been much £20,000,000.

after contract was questioning of the efficiency of the made shipping scarcity became acute, blockade, but no reproach can be made and the great bulk of the wheat is stilingainst the Navy on that ground. His in Australia The Commission have a Majesty's ships bring suspected vessels to quality for export up into port, and their liberation or appear- 1917, and have arranged ance in the Prize Court is within the with the Australian Government on responsibility of the Foreign Office. the storage of the flour into which the Naval officers have become statesmen in Wheat

now being converted. It is their dealing with rentral shippert. feared that much of the dour must Daily and hourly have they been at work

the necessary ships are not

gaar ons to:

to

to be feare

be contingency in operating a blockade which does not

seems to...

into account,ve been sufficiently taken consist of a line of ships before an enemy's

The committed suggest

suggest that if it is im possible to get tonnage for export to any market immediate steps should be taken to see whether the wheat cannot be ranna factured in Australis into some con modity capable of being

ports, but of patrolling squadrons all out of sight of one another but within easy steaming distance, usually about 20 miles apart. The examination service of the blockade is of the most arduous and exacting character.

BORANTE RENNALLE MENote of this work spectacular, but it

it can be brought into consumption

COSTLY NATIONAL SERVICE.

goes on day and night, year in and year out! The naval authorities have hitherto Reviewing the work of the Ministry of been too reticent concerning the routine National Service, ther And that the

accommodation

duties of the Navy, which have been

economical. The officiave been more fruitful In dramatic incidents. Now,

founed included happily, a new spirit is at work, and oficials with santries of £1,000 a year and schoffcial descriptions of some striking in one case £1,600 It seems that the work done by there officia) could have episodes arising from the conflict of our been adequately performed by persons Patrolling vessels with enemy. subrgarines, receiving smaller salaries £295,720 and the actions of naval se planes have © bien departured to be done before the British spent by the depart appeared. But a great deal more is re- It does not scem necessary, BATS the people can to made to understand the committee, to have set up a large stat unsurpassed services of the Navy in the Ipar xpensive hotel to obtain the loan War. It is lamentable that widespread „of men from the grime, We are of

of ignorance should prevail-concerning the opinion that the results obtained were daily work of the great force upon which not commensurate with the preparations our security depends, and without which Tamary outlay neither the British Army nor the armies

of any of the Allies could prevail.

1018

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