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ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 21 I
soldiers altogether, and they have spent some money
in fitting out and equipping these soldiers. The main-
tenance of these soldiers in the field, however, and the
supply of arms and other requisites have substantially
fallen upon the United Kingdom, and it may be
doubted whether the war has cost anything to the
Colonies which have helped us. We are, in fact, pro-
viding a fairly good occupation for about 10,000 colonists
outside those belonging to· South Africa itself, and the
Colonies so far real1y benefit by the war expenditure
in the same way that the communities of South Africa
benefit by it.
It is, no doubt, in contemplation that South Africa
is to furnish an indemnity towards the outlay which we
incur by carrying on the war. In this way it may be
said the cost of the war, which is incurred in the first
instance by the home Government, will be transferred
to the communities of South Africa. As a matter of
fact, however, the Transvaal indemnity will never be
directly paid. When it comes to be settled t~e money
will be supplied by a borrowing operation, and the loss,
when it falls ultimately on the communities of South
Africa in the shape of the interest payments on the
loan, will fall largely on a different people from the
present, while the repayments will go to our successors,
and not to the generation which has suffered the loss.
In this aspect what the Government pays for the war
may be said to be an investment of capital which will
directly come back to us in time along with all the
profits which we shall receive as the result of the peace
and prosperity to be established by means of the war.
Some will, perhaps, be surprised at the burden of
the war being thus in appearance whittled down. To
minimize the evils of war il) any fashion may even be
regarded as almost criminal. It is necessary, however,
to state facts precisely if we are to have clear ideas
at all, and if we do so it is beyond question that the
economic evils of the war as far as we have gone are
not of a very serious kind. The broad reason is, that