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WEALTH OF 14MPIRE, AND HOW rf SHOULD BE USED 375
is always being felt, and must be yielded to with good
or bad grace by every government.
An imperial survey Jeads to much the same conclu-
5ionr~nd suggests considerations of very grave import
indeed. When we go beyond the United Kingdom and
inquire as to military and naval preparation in the rest
of the empire, we find that India alone makes a sub-
stantial addition to the insurance fund, its military ex-
penditure being about I f! million £. Beyond that, it is
doubtful whether so much as 5 million £ is spent by
the rest of the empire for military defence, although
the wealth of the self-governing colonies is so enorm-
ously greater per head than of India. The result is that
when we make a comparison for the whole empire, we
find that the aggregate income as above stated is no
less than about £3,200,000,000, and the aggregate
capital over £22,0~Jooo,OOOj and the military and
naval expenditure-the insurance premium of this great
and rich empire-is no more than 95 million £, viz.,
70 miIlions for the United Kingdom, 18 for India, and
5 for the rest of the empire, that is, a proportion of
about 3 per cent. to the income and 0.4 per cent. to the
capital. This hardly seems" good business" for a great
and widely scattered empire, liable to be attacked on so
many points, and to be sundered into numerous frag-
ments, for a time at least, by a bold and enterprising
enemy. One of the worst features of the matter is that
the contribution by India, whose poverty we have had
to lament, is out of sight much greater, in proportion
to its taxable capacity, than that of the rest of the
empire, although the Indian army is freely used for
imperial and general purposes, and is not employed
exclusively for local defence.
The remedy is not specially for the people of the
United Kingdom to consider. but it is our business to
show the way. Apparently our public men of late years
have gone the wrong way to work, as they have tried the
method of a joint purse. as it were. to which the different
colonies have been invited to contribute, at least for