72 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

time in the course of the next eighteen months. Forexample, they could pick out—as presumably theywill as soon as they are established—the fine andpowerful German enterprise in South America knownas the Deutsche Ueberseeische JElektrizitdtsgesell-schaft (the D.U.E.G.), and dispose of it to Alliedinterests. The clause is unequivocal and all-embracing. It is worth while to note in passingthat it introduces a quite novel principle in thecollection of indemnities. Hitherto, a sum has beenfixed, and the nation mulcted has been left free todevise and select for itself the means of payment.But in this case the payees can (for a certain period)not only demand a certain sum but specify theparticular kind of property in which payment is tobe effected. Thus the powers of the ReparationCommission, with which I deal more particularlyin the next chapter, can be employed to destroyGermany 's commercial and economic organisation aswell as to exact payment.

The cumulative effect of (a), (6), and (c) (as wellas of certain other minor provisions on which I havenot thought it necessary to enlarge) is to depriveGermany (or rather to empower the Allies so todeprive her at their will—it is not yet accomplished)of everything she possesses outside her own frontiersas laid down in the Treaty . Not only are her over-sea investments taken and her connections destroyed,but the same process of extirpation is applied in the