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EUROPE AFTER THE TREATY

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into execution would logically involve, therefore, theloss of several millions of persons in Germany . Thiscatastrophe would not be long in coming about, see-ing that the health of the population has been brokendown during the War by the Blockade, and duringthe Armistice by the aggravation of the Blockade offamine. No help, however great, or over howeverlong a period it were continued, could prevent thesedeaths en masse" "We do not know, and indeedwe doubt," the report concludes, " whether the Dele-gates of the Allied and Associated Powers realisethe inevitable consequences which will take place ifGermany, an industrial State , very thickly popu-lated, closely bound up with the economic systemof the world, and under the necessity of importingenormous quantities of raw material and food-stuffs,suddenly finds herself pushed back to the phase ofher development which corresponds to her economiccondition and the numbers of her population as theywere half a century ago. Those who sign this Treatywill sign the death sentence of many millions ofGerman men, women and children."

I know of no adequate answer to these words.The indictment is at least as true of the Austrian,as of the German, settlement. This is thefundamental problem in front of us, before whichquestions of territorial adjustment and the balanceof European power are insignificant. Some of thecatastrophes of past history, which have thrown back