202 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

ground, or force in them. " The observations of theGerman Delegation," they pronounced, "present aview of this Commission so distorted and so inexactthat it is difficult to believe that the clauses of theTreaty have been calmly or carefully examined. Itis not an engine of oppression or a device for inter-fering with German sovereignty. It has no forces atits command; it has no executive powers within theterritory of Germany ; it cannot, as is suggested,direct or control the educational or other systems ofthe country. Its business is to ask what is to bepaid; to satisfy itself that Germany can pay ; andto report to the Powers, whose delegation it is, incase Germany makes default. If Germany raises themoney required in her own way, the Commissioncannot order that it shall be raised in some otherway; if Germany offers payment in kind, the Com-mission may accept such payment, but, except asspecified in the Treaty itself, the Commission cannotrequire such a payment."

This is not a candid statement of the scope andauthority of the Reparation Commission, as will beseen by a comparison of its terms with the summarygiven above or with the Treaty itself. Is not, forexample, the statement that the Commission "has noforces at its command" a little difficult to justify inview of Article 430 of the Treaty , which runs :—" In case, either during the occupation or after theexpiration of the fifteen years referred to above, the