The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Financing the fight

From ‘The Financial Emergency’, The Spectator, 5 June 1915:

In these columns the late Government have often been criticized for the way in which they permitted the national expenditure to grow in time of peace. Let us admit, however, quite frankly that the nation before the war began was so rich that it could afford without serious injury even the enormous growth in expenditure which has characterized the last five or six years. To that extent the authors of that expenditure are justified in arguing that their policy was not necessarily injurious at the time to the country as a whole, and that it did attain certain social objects which were worth attaining.

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