IV

THE TREATY

65

property is taken over, liabilities contracted inrespect of it in the form of public debts of any kindremain the liability of Germany . 1 The provinces alsoreturn to French sovereignty free and quit of theirshare of German war or pre-war dead-weight debt;nor does Germany receive 'a credit on this accountin respect of Reparation.

(4) The expropriation of German private propertyis not limited, however, to the ex-German coloniesand Alsace-Lorraine. The treatment of such propertyforms, indeed, a very significant and material sectionof the Treaty, which has not received as muchattention as it merits, although it was the subject of exceptionally violent objection on the part of theGerman delegates at Versailles. So far as I know,there is no precedent in any peace treaty of recenthistory for the treatment of private property set forthbelow, and the German representatives urged that theprecedent now established strikes a dangerous andimmoral blow at the security of private propertyeverywhere. This is an exaggeration, and the sharpdistinction, approved by custom and conventionduring the past two centuries, between the propertyand rights of a State and the property and rights ofits nationals is an artificial one, which is being rapidlyput out of date by many other influences than the

German Government, the French Government have held, in spite of the largeadditional capital which Germany has sunk in them, that their treatmentmust follow the precedent of State property generally.1 Arts. 55 and 255. This follows the precedent of 1871.

F