204 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

assisting and relieving them. Thus do the Viennese

o o

argue, still light-headed in adversity. But perhapsthey are right. The Reparation Commission willcome into very close contact with the problems ofEurope ; and it will bear a responsibility proportionateto its powers. It may thus come to fulfil a verydifferent role from that which some of its authorsintended for it. Transferred to the League of Nations ,an organ of justice and no longer of interest, whoknows that by a change of heart and object theReparation Commission may not yet be transformedfrom an instrument of oppression and rapine intoan economic council of Europe , whose object is therestoration of life and of happiness, even in the enemycountries ?

V. The German Counter-Proposals

The German counter-proposals were somewhatobscure, and also rather disingenuous. It will beremembered that those clauses of the ReparationChapter which dealt with the issue of bonds byGermany produced on the public mind the im-pression that the Indemnity had been fixed at£5000 million, or at any rate at this figure as aminimum. The German Delegation set out, there-fore, to construct their reply on the basis of thisfigure, assuming apparently that public opinionin Allied countries would not be satisfied with lessthan the appearance of £5000 million; and, as