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REPARATION

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comparable to the sum paid by France in 1871; andas the real burden of an indemnity increases morethan in proportion to its amount, the payment of£2,000,000,000 by Germany would have far severerconsequences than the £200,000,000 paid by France in 1871.

There is only one head under which I see apossibility of adding to the figure reached on the lineof argument adopted above; that is, if German labour is actually transported to the devastated areasand there engaged in the work of reconstruction. Ihave heard that a limited scheme of this kind isactually in view. The additional contribution thusobtainable depends on the number of labourers whichthe German Government could contrive to maintainin this way and also on the number which, over aperiod of years, the Belgian and French inhabitantswould tolerate in their midst. In any case, it wouldseem very difficult to employ on the actual work of re-construction, even over a number of years, importedlabour having a net present value exceeding (say)£250,000,000; and even this would not prove inpractice a net addition to the annual contributionsobtainable in other ways.

A capacity of £8,000,000,000 or even of£5,000,000,000 is, therefore, not within the limitsof reasonable possibility. It is for those who believethat Germany can make an annual payment amount-ing to hundreds of millions sterling to say in what