The Spectator at war: Settling the bill

From ‘The Finance of the War’, The Spectator, 20 February 1915:

According to Mr. Lloyd George’s estimate, the three Allied Powers together will have expended on war purposes by December 31st next something like £2,000,000,000. British expenditure, he estimates, will exceed that of each of the other two Powers by something between £100,000,000 and £150,000,000. We may take it that the extra cost involved to Great Britain is mainly due to the more liberal scale upon which our soldiers are paid and their dependants supported. The French and Russian Armies receive what in the estimate of the British soldier would be no pay at all, and the French separation allowances are on a very much more modest scale than those which public opinion has rightly compelled the British Government to pay. In addition, Great Britain has to incur very heavy expenditure upon the movement of troops from different parts of the world.