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Page 51
For the general public has, indeed, but vague ideas of what is happening
day by day and week by week in the great shipyards of the Clyde, the Tyne,
and the Mersey. But there, all the same, the workmen--and workwomen--of
Great Britain--(for women are taking an ever-increasing share in the
lighter tasks of naval engineering)--are adding incessantly to the
sea-power of this country, acquiescing in a Government control, a
loosening of trade custom, a dilution and simplification of skilled
labour, which could not have been dreamt of before the war. At the same
time they are meeting the appeal of Ministers to give up or postpone the
holidays they have so richly earned, for the sake of their sons and
brothers in the trenches, with a dogged "aye, aye!" in which there is a
note of profound understanding, of invincible and personal determination,
but rarely heard in the early days of the war.
III
So much for the Workshops and the Navy. Now before I turn to the New
Armies and the Somme offensive, let us look for a moment at the present
facts of British War Finance. By April last, the date of my sixth Letter,
we had raised 2,380 millions sterling, for the purposes of the war; we had
lent 500 millions to our Allies, and we were spending about 5 millions a
day on the war. According to a statement recently made by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer (August 10), by March next our debt will have risen to
3,440 millions sterling, 1,060 millions more than it stood at in March
last; our advances to our Allies will have increased to 800 millions,
while our daily war expenditure remains about the same.
Mr. McKenna's tone in announcing these figures was extraordinarily
cheerful. "We have every reason," he said, amid the applause of the House
of Commons--"to be proud of the manner in which British credit has stood
the strain." The truth is that by March next, at the present rate of
expenditure, our total indebtedness (deducting the advances to our Allies)
will almost exactly equal "one year's national income," i.e., the
aggregate of the income of every person in the country. But if a man
having an income of �5,000 a year, were to owe a total of �5,000, we
should not consider his position very serious. "We shall collect a
revenue in one year equal to 20 per cent. of the whole debt (i.e., 522
millions sterling), and we shall be able to pay, _out of existing
taxation_, the interest on the debt, and a considerable sinking-fund, and
shall still have left a large margin _for the reduction of
taxation_"--words which left a comfortable echo in the ears of the nation.
Meanwhile British trade--based on British sea-power--has shown
extraordinary buoyancy, the exports steadily increasing; so that the
nation, in the final words of the Chancellor, feels "no doubt whatever
that we shall be able to maintain our credit to the end of the war, _no
matter how long it may last_."
But do not let it be supposed that this huge revenue is being raised
without sacrifice, _without effort_. It means--for the present--as I have
already pointed out, the absorption by the State of five shillings in the
pound from the income of every citizen, above a moderate minimum, and of a
lesser but still heavy tax from those below that minimum; it means new
and increased taxation in many directions; and, as a consequence, heavy
increases in the cost of living; it means sharply diminished spending for
large sections of our population, and serious pinching for our
professional and middle classes.
But the nation, as a whole, makes no lament. We look our taxes in the
face, and we are beginning to learn how to save. We have our hearts fixed
on the future; and we have counted the cost.
The money then is no difficulty. Our resisting power, our prosperity even,
under the blows of war, have been unexpectedly great.
But what are we getting for our money?
In the case of the Navy, the whole later course of the war, no less than
the Battle of Jutland, has shown what the British Navy means to the cause
of the Allies. It is as I have said, the root fact in the war; and in the
end, it will be the determining fact; although, of itself, it cannot
defeat Germany _as we must defeat her_; at any rate in any reasonable
time.
Then as to the Army. Take first of all the administrative side. To
what--in the last four months--has come that wonderful system of
organisation and supply I tried to sketch in my fourth Letter, largely in
the words of some of the chief actors in it?
Within the last fortnight, a skilled observer has been reporting to the
British public his impressions of the "Army behind the Lines" in France,
as I saw a portion of it last February, in the great British supply bases
and hospital camps, on the lines of communication, and throughout the
immense and varied activities covered by the British motor transport.
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