130 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

represent Labour, shouted from a platform, " I amfor hanging the Kaiser."

On December 6, the Prime Minister issued astatement of policy and aims in which he stated,with significant emphasis on the word European,that " All the European Allies have accepted theprinciple that the Central Powers must pay the costof the war up to the limit of their capacity/ 7

But it was now little more than a week toPolling Day, and still he had not said enough tosatisfy the appetites of the moment. On December8, The Times, providing as usual a cloak ofostensible decorum for the lesser restraint of itsassociates, declared in a leader entitled " MakingGermany Pay," that "the public mind was stillbewildered by the Prime Minister's various state-ments." "There is too much suspicion/' they added,"of influences concerned to let the Germans offlightly, whereas the only possible motive in determin-ing their capacity to pay must be the interests of theAllies." "It is the candidate who deals with theissues of to-day," wrote their Political Correspondent," who adopts Mr. Barnes's phrase about £ hanging theKaiser' and plumps for the payment of the cost ofthe war by Germany, who rouses his audience andstrikes the notes to which they are most responsive."

On December 9, at the Queen's Hall, the PrimeMinister avoided the subject. But from now on, thedebauchery of thought and speech progressed hour by