Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

EFFECTS ON PUBLIC FINANCE

Il9

itures. Also the increased expenditures for public debt
and pensions constituted a considerable portion of the annual
expenditures for a long time after the war. We shall consider
in the following pages the changes in annual expenditures
brought about by the war, under the respective headings of
military expenditures, expenditures for financial affairs (public debt expenses and others), administrative expenditures,
government industries expenditures, and colonial expenditures.
Military expenditures
War being the last resort by which the rise or fall of a state
in its international position is determined and the result of the
conflict controlling its destiny, victory must be secured at any
cost, even to the mobilizing of all the national resources, once
war is declared; for in the present condition of human life the
state is the most important factor for the attainment of the
peace and happiness of mankind. During war, therefore,
military expenditures must take precedence over all other
outlays, even to the sacrifice of the latter.
It has already been stated that of the war-time military
expenditures, amounting to 1,508,ooo,ooo yen, the greater part,
namely, 1,283,000,000 yen, was taken up by the expenses for
the Army, and that of the war-time administrative expenses
36,000,000 yen was the amount for the Army. The two items
totaled 1,319,000,000 yen, which represents the whole of the
war expenditures for the Army and was disbursed in five fiscal
years beginning with I903-4. We shall make here, for the
sake of convenience, yearly divisions in the military expenditures in order to compare the regular expenditures for the
Army with the war expenses for the Army, and to show the
changes in the total expenditures for the Army before, during,
and after the war. (See table at the top of the next page.)
The general trend of the total expenditures for the Army
before, during, and after the war will thus be understood from
the following table. In the pre-war days, the ordinary expenses ranged from 36,000,000 yen to 39,000,000 yen and the
extraordinary expenses from Io,ooo,ooo yen to 38,000,000 yen,