An outline of the Army Estimates was published on Wednes-
day. The total sum required for the year 1920-21 is £125,000,000, but out of this no more than £55,000,000 is required for the Army on the establishment authorised before the war, including the Territorial Force. The terminal charges of the war account for £29,500,000, while £40,500,000 is assigned for the maintenance of garrisons on the Rhine—the cost of which will be borne by Germany—and in the occupied territories in the Near East. As the Army cost £29,000,000 before the war, and as the old pound is now worth rather less than ten shillings, the Regular
Army Estimate does not seem excessive. The expenditure on the new garrisons is very high because the Near East is in a state of grave unrest. To expose small detachments to the danger of being overwhelmed by Turkish or Bolshevik forces, in order to save a million or two on the Estimates, would be an act of criminal folly. We cannot now leave the work of pacification unfinished.
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