2i 4 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

industrial State. So long as she was an agriculturalState, Germany could feed forty million inhabitants.As an industrial State she could ensure the means ofsubsistence for a population of sixty-seven millions ;and in 1913 the importation of food-stuffs amounted,in round figures, to twelve million tons. Before theWar a total of fifteen million persons in Germany provided for their existence by foreign trade, naviga-tion, and -the use, directly or indirectly, of foreignraw material." After rehearsing the main relevantprovisions of the Peace Treaty the report continues :"After this diminution of her products, after theeconomic depression resulting from the loss of hercolonies, her merchant fleet and her foreign invest-ments, Germany will not be in a position to importfrom abroad an adequate quantity of raw material.An enormous part of German industry will, there-fore, be condemned inevitably to destruction. Theneed of importing food-stuffs will increase consider-ably at the same time that the possibility of satisfy-ing this demand is as greatly diminished. In avery short time, therefore, Germany will not be ina position to give bread and work to her numerousmillions of inhabitants, who are prevented fromearning their livelihood by navigation and trade.These persons should emigrate, but this is a materialimpossibility, all the more because many countriesand the most important ones will oppose anyGerman immigration. To put the Peace conditions