As to finance, the colossal figures of last year, of which I gave a
summary in _England's Effort,_ have been much surpassed. The Budget of
Great Britain for this year, including advances to our Allies, reaches
the astounding figure of two thousand three hundred million sterling.
Our war expenditure is now close upon six million sterling a day
(L5,600,000). Of this the expenditure on the Army and Navy and munitions
has risen from a daily average of nearly three millions sterling, as it
stood last year, to a daily average of nearly five millions.
But the nation has not spent in vain!
"Compare the first twenty-four days of the fighting on the Somme last
year,"--said Mr. Bonar Law in a recent speech--"with the first
twenty-four days of the operations of this spring. Four times as much
territory had been taken from the enemy in this offensive as was taken
in the Somme, against the resistance of double the number of German
divisions. And of those divisions just one-half have had to be
withdrawn--shattered--from the fighting line while the British
casualties in the offensive have been from 50 to 75 per cent, less than
the casualties in the Somme fighting.
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