V

REPARATION

135

President, and on the other hand with competinginterests to those of France and Belgium . Theclearer it became that but little could be expectedfrom Germany , the more necessary it was to exercisepatriotic greed and "sacred egotism" and snatch thebone from the juster claims and greater need ofFrance or the well-founded expectations of Belgium .Yet the financial problems which were about toexercise Europe could not be solved by greed. Thepossibility of their cure lay in magnanimity.

Europe , if she is to survive her troubles, will needso much magnanimity from America , that she mustherself practise it. It is useless for the Allies , hotfrom stripping Germany and one another, to turn forhelp to the United States to put the States of Europe ,including Germany , on to their feet again. If theGeneral Election of December 1918 had been foughton lines of prudent generosity instead of imbecilegreed, how much better the financial prospect ofEurope might now be. I still believe that before themain Conference, or very early in its proceedings, therepresentatives of Great Britain should have entereddeeply, with those of the United States , into theeconomic and financial situation as a whole, and thatthe former should have been authorised to makeconcrete proposals on the general lines (1) that allinter-allied indebtedness be cancelled outright; (2)that the sum to be paid by Germany be fixed at£2000 million; (3) that Great Britain renounce