THE WASTE OF WAR AND ITS OFFSETS.
AT the moment when a War Budget and a War Loan are before the public, and when the total South African casualties, in killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners (up to March 17th), are returned as nearly a thousand officers and 14,409 non-commissioned officers and privates, it is not unnatural that the minds of men, even in this wealthy country, should be a good deal occupied with the sense of the terrible cost and waste even of a successful war. Except among the Little Englander and the peace-at-any-price parties, there is no disposition whatever to think that the sacrifices made already, and to be made, for the establishment of tran- quillity in South Africa on a firm and equitable basis will prove at all too heavy. Indeed, there would be a general readiness to face for that object much more onerous burdens and losses than any which now appear it all AT the moment when a War Budget and a War Loan are before the public, and when the total South African casualties, in killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners (up to March 17th), are returned as nearly a thousand officers and 14,409 non-commissioned officers and privates, it is not unnatural that the minds of men, even in this wealthy country, should be a good deal occupied with the sense of the terrible cost and waste even of a successful war. Except among the Little Englander and the peace-at-any-price parties, there is no disposition whatever to think that the sacrifices made already, and to be made, for the establishment of tran- quillity in South Africa on a firm and equitable basis will prove at all too heavy. Indeed, there would be a general readiness to face for that object much more onerous burdens and losses than any which now appear it all likely to be required. Yet the feeling of waste is pain- fully present, and serves to deepen the resentment enter- tained towards Mr. Kruger and Mr. Steyn for having forced on war. This attitude is quite reasonable, but at the same time Englishmen may do well to realise that all which seems at first sight pure loss is not actually so. The sixty millions sterling, or thereabouts, which, it is reckoned, may perhaps cover the cost of the war, is not to be regarded as so much gold subtracted from the wealth of the nation and poured into the sea, as the price of justice to the Outlanders and the final establishment of British sovereignty in South Africa. A very considerable proportion of the great sum thus expended is, from the point of view of the national housekeeper, applied not in an entirely additional outlay, but only in keeping so many thousands of the sons of the house under more expensive conditions than would ordinarily have been involved. This will be seen, if we look at two or three of the items in the Army Estimates for the forth- coming year under the head of " War Services." That category only covers about half of the total cost of the war as considered in the Budget, the remainder having been for the most part accounted for in Supplementary Estimates, but it illustrates quite sufficiently the point we desire to make. Thus in the Army Estimates, 1900-1, we find that more than three and a quarter millions is taken for clothing in connection with the war in South Africa, over and above the sum of less than a million and a half which is reckoned as the normal clothing charge. But, obviously, this does not mean that three and a quarter millions sterling more is to be spent in England on clothes during the coming twelve months than would have been spent if there had been no war. The same men would have had to be clothed if there had been no war with the Trans- vaal, but to a very large extent they would have lived and worn their clothes here, and the garments would probably have been made of a different material. In so far as they are Reservists or Auxiliaries they would have ordered their own clothes, drawing the money wherewith to pay the tailor, ready-made or otherwise, from salaries or wages paid by employers of all sorts in this country. No doubt, on the average, the members of her Majesty's forces serving in South Africa have, for various reasons, more suits than they would have had at home. That is where the charge on the nation's wealth for the war comes in, in this particular respect. But speak- ing off-hand, and without opportunity for investigating a subject of much complexity, we should imagine that of the three and a quarter millions for clothing shown in the Army Estimates as occasioned by the war in South Africa, from a half to two-thirds would in any case have been spent on dress if there had been no war at all. It is possible, that is to say, that the turnover of the textile, dyeing, and ready-made clothing industries may be increased to the extent of a million or a million and a half above what would have been the case in a year of good trade like the present ; but we should be much surprised if the increase were larger. And consider- ing the vicissitudes to which the trades in question are normally liable, it is difficult to regard such a stimulus to their activity, and corresponding addition to the profits and wages distributed among them, as unwholesome or undeserved.
A similar line of remark applies, at least in part, to the great extra expenditure, exceeding nine millions sterling, included in the Army Estimates as occasioned by the charge for provisions, forage, and other supplies in con- nection with the present war. The Regular soldiers,-Re- servists, and Auxiliaries together, who will eat those provisions, would have eaten at home, if there had been no war, much the same amount of nourishing food as they will consume in South Africa. So far as they are not Regular soldiers, they would, of course, have paid their own tradesmen, being catered for by their wives or female relations. It is difficult to judge whether, apart from the cost of transport, which comes under another head, the War Office pays more for the feeding of the average member of the Queen's forces serving in South Africa than he would have had to pay for himself if living at home. No doubt there is a considerable diversion of custom from the purveyors of fresh, to those of preserved, articles of food ; but that circumstance, though, like similar diversions, which the enhanced demand for khaki may have made in the textile and dyeing trades, it may cause inconvenience in certain cases, cannot be regarded as constituting waste. The industry of food- preserving gives a large amount of employment, and is a. valuable one in connection with the domestic economy of small households ; and any temporary help it may have derived, or be deriving, from the demands of the War Office is certainly no matter for regret. In a word, in so far as concerns the two heads of expenditure to which we have referred, which account for more than a third of the War Service charges given in the Army Estimates for 1900-1, it seems that the word. " waste " is very little, if at all, applicable. Economically, the war, in these respects, means, no doubt, the full addition which appears to the burden of the taxpayer, but does not mean an unproductive lavishing of the national resources. Rather does it afford, as offset to the waste which it unquestion- ably causes in other directions, such as the using up of great stores of costly ammunition, a stimulus of no very excessive or abnormal character to industries essentially bound up with the general economic well-being of the country. A similar offset must be recognised in connection with the charge for remounts. This (which includes mules) runs, in the Army Estimates for 1900-1, to something like two millions sterling above the estimate for 1899-1900: A large part of this charge has, no doubt, been, or will be, incurred in purchases outside this country, but in so far as it represents money distributed among English horse- owners it cannot fail to be of distinct service to the agri- cultural interest.
Thus in connection with one of the most distressing parts of the waste of war—the sufferings of animals from wounds and their rapid wearing out from fatigue—there is an item on the credit side. At the best, indeed, alike in its economic and its human aspects, the debit balance is terribly heavy against it. But the world being such as it is, we may as well draw what consolation we may in presence of a scourge which, M. de Bloch notwithstanding, can hardly be ruled " impossible " even on the great scale, and which, in our own case, has proved itself only too possible on a scale quite large enough. Even in the human and moral sphere there are some real compensations for its ghastly evils. Putting aside as exceptional the immensely im- portant welding influence which this war is plainly exer- cising on the constituent members of the British Empire, there can be no question that, in very act of waste, there are often evolved qualities of self-sacrifice which glorify humanity. Of this fact there is abundant evidence, as well as of the stimulating influence exercised by all the tremendous experiences, through which they pass in common, upon the higher natures of soldiers of all classes. Self-devotion, the spirit of comradeship and mutual obligation among men of various ranks, the sense of the nearness of the unseen,—these are things which amid the hurry and the sordid commercialism of so much of modern life have been sadly rare. Our fighters in South Africa, have been to a school of chivalry and reality, and very many of them will come back to us with an influence making for the revival of social virtues which was never more needed than on the eve of the twentieth century. Too many, alas ! will never come back, but they will have left us a legacy full of inspiration, which may be set against war's most cruel waste.
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