GRAVE WARNING AS TO NATION’S EXPENDITURE.

The House of Commons is alarmed at the steadily increasing rate of daily expenditure upon the war. All adjectives of magnitude were exhausted long since, when the rate was but half of what it is now. There is, therefore, nothing left but to state the facts simply. And the facts are these:

AVERAGE DAILY EXPENDITURE.

Last Budget Estimate £6,411,000 Actual for the last 112 days £6,795,000 Average daily excess £1,384,000

That is to say, we are spending nearly seven millions a day. Nor does it end there. For the increase in the debt charge will represent another million a day by the end of the financial year, and the total, therefore, as Mr. Mckenna pointed out – in a speech which demands careful study – will be £8,000,000 a day.

There is, indeed, some little comfort to be drawn from the fact that the real excess in the average daily rate is not quite as big as it looks. It is made up as follows:

Excess on the Army, Navy, and munitions votes £606,000

Excess in advances to Allies and Dominions £669,000

Excess in miscellaneous items £309,000 Total daily excess £1,384,000

Or, expressed in totals for the period of 112 days, we find:

Excess in advances to Allies £63,600,000 Excess on our own Services £91,600,000

The advances to our Allies and Dominions still continue, though out of 197 millions advanced in this period only 4 millions went to the Dominions, which are now financing their own part in the war for themselves. Mr. Bonar Law did not conceal his disappointment that the entry of the United States had not relieved us of the necessity of these perpetually increasing advances to our Allies. But he is confident that the United States will place her resources at the disposal of the Allies, as we have done, and help to shoulder the financial burden of the weaker members of the Entente. But that burden is truly colossal. Great Britain has already advanced 1,025 millions, of which only 146 were to the Dominions.