IV

THE TREATY

95

resources for the purchase of necessaries and the dis-charge of Reparation. As a result of the existingdistribution of wealth in Germany , and of financialwantonness amongst individuals, the offspring of un-certainty, Germany is threatened with a deluge ofluxuries and semi-luxuries from abroad, of which shehas been starved for years, which would exhaust ordiminish her small supplies of foreign exchange. Theseprovisions strike at the authority of the GermanGovernment to ensure economy in such consumption,or to raise taxation during a critical period. What anexample of senseless greed overreaching itself, to intro-duce, after taking from Germany what liquid wealthshe has and demanding impossible payments for thefuture, a special and particularised injunction thatshe must allow as readily as in the days of herprosperity the import of champagne and of silk !

One other Article affects the Customs Regime ofGermany which, if it was applied, would be seriousand extensive in its consequences. The Allies havereserved the right to apply a special customs regimeto the occupied area on the left bank of the Rhine," in the event of such a measure being necessary intheir opinion in order to safeguard the economicinterests of the population of these territories." 1This provision was probably introduced as apossibly useful adjunct to the French policy ofsomehow detaching the left bank provinces from

1 Art. 270.