158 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

of a stable Government to treat with. The questionof how such provisions were to be paid for presented,however, the gravest difficulties. A series of Confer-ences was held at Treves, at Spa, at Brussels, and sub-sequently at Chateau Villette and Versailles, betweenrepresentatives of the Allies and of Germany , withthe object of finding some method of payment aslittle injurious as possible to the future prospects ofReparation payments. The German representativesmaintained from the outset that the financial ex-haustion of their country was for the time beingso complete that a temporary loan from the Allies was the only possible expedient. This the Allies could hardly admit at a time when they werepreparing demands for the immediate payment byGermany of immeasurably larger sums. But, apartfrom this, the German claim could not be acceptedas strictly accurate so long as their gold was stilluntapped and their remaining foreign securities un-marketed. In any case, it was out of the questionto suppose that in the spring of 1919 public opinionin the Allied countries or in America would haveallowed the grant of a substantial loan to Germany .On the other hand, the Allies were naturally reluctantto exhaust on the provisioning of Germany the goldwhich seemed to afford one of the few obvious andcertain sources for Reparation. Much time was ex-pended in the exploration of all possible alternatives;but it was evident at last that, even if German