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210 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
called. What the Govern'ment pays is a different thing.
What it pays is a payment really from some members of
the community to others, many of whom make large pro-
fits; and the net loss to the community as a whole must
be measured in some such way as has now been applied.
What the final loss will be, then, depends on the
length of the war. A year of it will apparently involve
a loss of about £30,000,000 to the community, that is a
net loss; and if the war continues longer the loss will
be much more.
From the point of view of the Government, the
position is perhaps more serious. They estimate an
expenditure of £60,000,000 for the past and the pre-
sent financial years, and it is probable that this sum will
be exceeded. Very likely the charge may be even
£ 100,000,000 before the present financial year expires.
as we have not merely to beat the enemy, but to occupy
the country inch by inch. In any case the outlay by the
Government must be enormous. I t must not be con-
fused with the net loss to the community; but, looked
at by itseff and from the point of view of the national
nnances, it seems a formidable figure.
Large as the sum is, however, it cannot be said to
be a very formidable one when compared with the re-
sources of the United Kingdom itself. £ 100,000,000 is
about a seventeenth part only of the aggregate annual
income of the people of the United Kingdom, and
almost an infinitesimal amount comnali:d w~.:~~ the fif-
teen or sixteen thousal}{! ~mi~~:;'at which the wealth
of the country is e~Yma:ted. I t is no matter for surprise
therefore that the 9urden of the war seems to be hardly
felt at all. Import~nt as the war is for the loss of life
it has occasioned, ~nd in other aspects, it is in reality
a little war as far a~ our resources in men and money
are concerned. \
It seems unnecessarV to say anything as to the loss
of the war to other parhs of the British Empire. The
other parts of the Empire outside the United Kingdom
and South Africa appear to have supplied about 10,000