V

REPARATION

145

bill as now presented more than exhausted thiscapacity as estimated by the more sober authorities.The President, on the other hand, had secured aformula, which was not too obvious a breach of faith,and had avoided a quarrel with his Associates on anissue where the appeals to sentiment and passionwould all have been against him, in the event of itsbeing made a matter of open popular controversy.In view of the Prime Ministers election pledges, thePresident could hardly hope to get him to abandonthem in their entirety without a struggle in public;and the cry of pensions would have had an over-whelming popular appeal in all countries. Oncemore the Prime Minister had shown himself a politicaltactician of a high order.

A further point of great difficulty may be readilyperceived between the lines of the Treaty . It fixesno definite sum as representing Germany 's liability.This feature has been the subject of very generalcriticism,—that it is equally inconvenient to Germany and to the Allies themselves that she should notknow what she has to pay or they what they areto receive. The method, apparently contemplatedby the Treaty , of arriving at the final result overa period of many months by an addition of hundredsof thousands of individual claims for damage toland, farm buildings, and chickens, is evidently im-practicable ; and the reasonable course would havebeen for both parties to compound for a round sum

L