'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎606r] (1232/1486)

ST. PETERSBURG.
11
is principally clue to the losses in exchange on payments in Finland,
which were formerly charged to the Ministry of Finance, to
increased expense in working the Trans-Caspian railway, and to
the necessity of providing for the expense of the new arrange
ments in connection with the training of the militia. If we turn
to the statement of details of expenditure published with the
budget, we find an additional sum of 1,034,370 r. provided for
the training of militia and reserves, and an increase of 1,204,472 r.
for working the Trans-Caspian railway. The two amounts thus
indicated leave over 3,500,000 r. of the total increase to be accounted
for, and it is fairly certain that the extra charge for Finnish pay
ments (concerning which no details are given) can form but a small
portion of such a sum. We are thus brought to the conclusions,
1 st., that the self-praise of the military authorities for their suc
cessful and profitable working of the Trans-Caspian railway is
unwarranted by facts; 2 nd., that a definite addition to the
military budget of over 1,500,000 r. has been made to provide for
increased efficiency in the reserve forces; and 3rd., that a further
addition of probably some 3,000,000 has been made for general
military purposes which are not indicated. The increased cost of
maintaining the Trans-Caspian military railway was anticipated
in the exceptions indicated in the Ukase of last year, already
referred to, as was also the possibility of such fresh charges, as the
addition for payments in Finland, which are in reality purely
matters of account; but still the fact remains, that in spite of the
honest endeavours of the Minister of Finance to control such
expenditure, the military budget is increased this year by demands
which were not anticipated nine months previously, and which
amount to at least 4,000,000 r. 4,000,000 r. is not a large sum
when we consider the steady augmentation of military expenditure
throughout Europe, but the fact that the present Russian Minister
of Finance should have been forced to concede so much to the
demands made upon him, shows the difficulty of his position, and
proves that Russia is determined not to be left behind in the costly
European military competition.
In addition to the present increase to the military budget for
Finnish payments, it may be expected that in future years further
additions will be made for the same purpose of attaining a more
correct sy T stem of accounts. In the present budget we find a sum
of 672,000 r. for the expense of collecting recruits charged to the
Ministry of Finance, and a considerable sum charged to the
Ministry of Domains, for the supply of war material from state
establishments. These, and probably other items scattered else
where, should certainly be debited to the Ministry of War, and
M. Wishnegradsky is doing good work in his process of systemat
ising the accounts, and showing the true nature of all expenditure.
Further, before leaving this subject of military expenditure,
attention should again be called to the fact that so far, the present
Minister of Finance has prevented the recurrence of such demands
for extra credits in the course of the financial year, as used under