The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-08-08
MONEY COST0F BOER WAR
GREAT BRITAIN WILL PAY ABOUT
ss5o,ooo,ooo

Tho south African Contest Has Been
Great Drain Upon the Financial Ie-
sources OF the British Empirs-How
the Millions Have Been Expended.
The cost Of the Boer war from @
financial point OF view Is generally
estimated Ia the press and even by
those more or less ln touch with busl-'
ness affairs at 81 .25O.OOO.0Oo. though
why these figures were adopted inielll.
gent Investigation fails to reveal OF
course the actual cost of the war 20
Great Britain will be nothing ike the
amount figured. and It is even doubtful
II It VIII reach the more conservative
total Of $3.50 100000 recently given by
a writer in these columns. The proba-
bllites are that the cost to Great
Britain viii not exceed SSOO0O0.O00.
and may even be less than that
When the war began in 1899 the
British Government was paying s0me-
thing like $1OO,OOOO0O for IT'S army
the expenditure I'm 1899, in fact, was
exactly that figure, or S11,7079D5 less
than the gross estimates for the year.
/ The expenditures in 1900 leaped up TO
! S2l90OOO00 which were almost dou.
bled in 1901, the figures being SASS.
100000 while the estimates voted for
1901 1902 were S45S, 90S,695. The &C.
tual expenditures have not yet been
reported, but as Lord Kitchener has
reduced the expenses about S5,OO0000
a month by his admirable system, they
viii be, In all probability, not more
than $500 100000. But this is the ex-
penditure for the whole army engaged
IN South Africa or elsewhere at home
or abroad Obviously a good round
sum must be deducted in order to give
the actual expenditures upon the forces
engaged in subduing the Beers The
total expenditures for the army in the
three years, 1900, 1901 1902, would be
81, 075, 800, 900, which in themselves are
$3.50, 100000 less than "the cost Of the
war" as usually given by the news
papers Deduct from this amount the
usual army expenditures for three
years, taking as a basis the figures for
1899 and amounting to $360,000,000 in
round numbers, and the result is $715,-
550OOO from which again must be
deducted the cost of the China trou-
bles, upon which $2s,3OO0O0 was ex-
pended. This brings the actual cost
of the war to $687, 100000 up to July
l, 1902, -
There remains yet to be taken into
consideration the cost of maintaining
the forces in South Africa until civil
rule is permanently established Judg-
ing from the spirit displayed by the
Beers, this will not be more than one
: year, if that; at any rate, the number
. of troops will be rapidly diminished
= with the disarming of the colonial pop
ulation, and the enormous cost of
transport service will be materially
). lessened. Accepting Secretary Brod-
! rick's statement of the economical
N genius of Lord Kitchener as a basis
the cost Of the forces in South Africa
i for 1902-1903 ought not to exceed $780,.
!. 100000; but granting that adding in
=. the S15,000,000 for restocking Boel
farms and the cost of transportation
o. of Boer prisoners, it will reach $780,
100000, the grand cost of the war W
o to July 1, 1903, will have been only
" $SS7, 100000.
1t is interesting to note the direction
in which these moneys have been ex
pended. The greatest item outside o.
the actual pay of the soldiery has been
as will probably be conjectured, tina
of provisioning tine troops III 100
. this cost S4sOO0,0OO, which, with tn
addition of the cost Of feeding lh
Boer prisoners in the recommendation
camps, increased in 1902 to SIC, 41O
600. The next big item is the cost 0
transport service, which in 1900-190
1t was S46,000,000, ana in the following
IN year something more than $76,U00,0 OC
-s For warlike stores the cost i'll 1901 wa
Ill $27 100000, and in 1902 was $54, $50
be 600 The pay of the men reache
$43, 100000 in 1901 and increased t
er- $75, ISL, 500 in 1902. The clothing o
Ly, the men cost something like $4,000
at 600. 1t may be stated here that thes
"a figures have been reached in each il
"a. stance by deducting the mean cost @
N Great Britain's standing army for sey
eral years before the war from til
'se estimates for the army for the year
vi during the war. The failure to 4
ie- tbs in all computations of the COS
raj of the war seems to be one Of the chi,
ds. factors in reaching the figures of 81
ny 250.0OO,0O0 Manifestly it is unjust /
ON add to the cost of the forces in Sout
Inv