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. All these considerations, however, are cancelled by the fasts of the war, and the authors of the high rate of pre-war expenditure probably now feel regret that they did not proceed more cautiously. We all of us know that we have to spend on war purposes at a rate which was not contemplated by any one before the war began, and we also know that this rate of expenditure must involve very serious financial difficulties. As Mr. Lloyd George pointed out in his last Budget speech, the problem to be faced is not merely that of paying interest on War Debt when the war is over. There is also an immediate problem of finding the necessary capital to finance the war. That can only be found by cutting down expenditure on unnecessary purposes or by realizing at an enormous loss our investments abroad. The latter method should only be employed as a final resource. Our business is first of all to do the utmost we can with our present resources before we call in our past accumulations.
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