Vast Sums Expended in Preparation to Kill Men—New Countries like Australia Taxed to the Limit
What Does It Mean?
By JOHN E. FULTON
Special Australian Correspondent
LONDON ULSTER VOLUNTEER CORPS Photo by Paul Thompson
“WITHOUT ANY TANGIBLE REASON”
THE war spirit is in the air. It is born and bred in the race. The schoolboy drills, commands, and leads forth to an imaginary onslaught an imaginary army, or plays with a navy of rival toy Dreadnoughts. The military spirit is thus confirmed.
The world is a vast army camp. The sea bristles with powerful navies. The air is filling with airships for war purposes. Millions of trained warriors are waiting for the summons to battle. “Wars and rumors of war” is the Scriptural phrase descriptive of the days in which we live—“men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”
Statesmen view with apprehension the strained relations of the great nations of the day and their warlike preparations. Lord Roseberry, in a speech on the military situation in Europe, said: “Without any tangible reason we see the nations preparing new armaments. They can not arm any more men on the land, so they have to seek new armaments on the sea, piling up these enormous preparations, as if for some great Armageddon.”
And here in young Australia, far removed from other nations of the Old and the New World, we are not to be out of fashion in respect to militarism. A military defense scheme has been adopted, which even at this early stage is costing nearly $30,000,000 annually, and Australia has scarcely a population of 4,500,000.
Says the Britannica Year Book for 1913: “The cost of this great naval and military preparation is shown in the growth of the Australian defense votes. In 1905-6 the commonwealth devoted £970,345 to defense, in 1906-7 £1,035,795, in 1907-8 £1,334,744, in 1908-9 £1,050,590, 1909-10 £1,534,881, in 1910-11 £3,008,705. The estimates for 1911-12 provide for an expenditure of £4,775,136.” This is over five dollars per capita, more proportionally than is expended by Germany on her army and navy.
Says the editor of the Australian Review of Reviews: “Next year there will be a deficit of four or five million pounds to meet. Under these circumstances, is Australia justified in permitting this huge additional expenditure beyond what she originally bargained for? Ought she, in the attempt to secure 80,000 trained men demanded by the Kitchener program, to cripple herself by paying more per head on armaments than any other country in418the world? Every unprejudiced man can not but come to the conclusion that she ought to cut her coat according to her cloth.”
CHILD CONSCRIPTION
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE
And not only so, but child conscription has been adopted in this new country. Boys at a tender age are snatched from their home and cast into military camps to learn the art of killing men. Certainly the spirit of the age is not foreign to Australia.
What an awful outlook! Mad preparations for Armageddon, and yet men are preaching peace, when men will learn war no more! But what follows? A limitation of armaments, a conversion of “swords into pruning-hooks,” and a millennium of peace? Far from it. Peace conferences have been frequent, but it must be confessed that they have not been prolific in results tending to peaceful relations. Instead, we have called to us records of wars and of warlike preparations. “Peace congresses” and “limitations of armaments” seem to be but expressions to conjure with. While men talk of peace, the actions belie their utterances.
“PEACE AND SAFETY”
Says the Scripture, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3. And says the prophet: “I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I can not hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled.” Jer. 4:19, 20.
NATIONAL AND RACE FEELING NEVER STRONGER
From the Literary Digest we take the following pertinent paragraphs:
“Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon the earth than it is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so sustained. Never was striking power so swift and so terribly formidable. What is manifest now is that the Anglo-Saxon world, with all its appurtenant provinces and states, is in the most direct danger of overthrow final and complete, owing to the decay of its military virtue, and of the noble qualities upon which all military virtue is built. . . .
“The shadow of conflict and of displacement greater than that which mankind has known since Attila and his Huns were stayed at Chalons is visibly impending over the world: Almost can the ear of imagination hear the gathering of the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the trumpet of the Lord of hosts.”
With these words agree the prophecy of Isaiah: “The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.” Isa. 13:4-6.
The revelator, referring to the last days, says, “The nations are angry.” This is the truth. Greed is universal with the nations, and all are jealous lest some advantage be gained by one above another. Some have old scores to settle, and are arming to the teeth, ready for battle.
THREE FOURTHS GOES FOR WAR
What immense sums are expended for war purposes! Fully seventy-five per cent of all revenues of the leading nations goes for armies and navies. Napoleon fought at Waterloo with about 75,000 men, while to-day the five continental powers have a standing army of about 1,000,000 men each. The smaller nations have armies proportionately large, and their revenues are just as largely used for war preparation.
“Let the weak say, I am strong,” says the prophet Joel, in speaking of the last days. How the world has been taken by surprise by the warlike preparations of Japan! Only a few years ago she was unknown as a military power, was “weak.” To-day she is to be reckoned with.
THE YELLOW PERIL
Under the influence and tutelage of Japan, China is making wonderful strides as a military power. And considering the vast millions composing the yellow races, what a menace to Europe it must be for these nations to be thoroughly armed! Well may the statesmen speak of the “yellow peril.”
The rapidly occurring events of current history fulfil the prediction made twenty-seven centuries ago by the prophet Joel: “Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. . . . Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. . . . Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:9, 12, 14, A. R. V.
