Lord Emmott in the House of Lords on Tuesday made
a useful speech on German finance, the true state of which is little known either here or in Germany. Lord Emmott pointed out that, in order to reduce this year's deficit to £144,000,000, the German Government had included the old Customs revenue of £36,000,000, which the blockade had wiped out, and also the old Excise revenue of £32,000,000 on articles that were now very scarce. They had also omitted the £70,000,000 which in peace time they spent on the Army and Navy, so that the Budget was dishonest on both sides of the account. Germany would have to raise £720,000,000 to meet her obligations—including interest on a D ebt of £8,000,000,000 if the war ended next March ; she had provided by permanent taxes for less than half this amount. If he were a German, said Lord Emmott, he should regard the day of reckoning with positive terror. Germany would have to raise perhaps £400,000,000 a year by direct taxation at a time when war profits had ceased. If the German capitalists began to realize that they would get no indemnities and would have to pay still heavier taxes the longer the war lasted, their war-fever might abate.
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