ABSTRACT
IT is still too early to say with certainty how large the W ar Debt will be when demobilisation is complete, or has ad vanced so far that the Government can stop borrowing. But we may reckon on a total debt of not less than £8,000 millions. This is not wholly due to the present war, for we started the war with a National Debt of £710 millions. More than half of this has been “ converted” into W ar Loan, and in the process part of the capital was wiped out, although the rate of interest on the new stock was raised. There are, too, numerous assets which must be set against the huge total of d e b t; of these the chief are the loans made to our Allies and Dominions. These loans were stated by the Chancellor of the E x chequer, on November 12th, 1918, to have amounted to £1,683,500,000 on October 19th,
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CHAPTER VII
66 the small proportion of £218! millions being the amount advanced to our Dominions. During the rest of the financial year 1918-19 the loans to Allies and Dominions were ex pected to increase to something like £1,860 millions. (Mr. Law’s statement on November 12th was exceedingly confused.
