vii REMEDIES 241

to pass the sponge of oblivion. There are indemnitiesstipulated which cannot be enacted without graveinjury to the industrial revival of Europe , and whichit will be in the interests of all to render moretolerable and moderate. ... I am confident that theLeague of Nations will yet prove the path of escapefor Europe out of the ruin brought about by thiswar." Without the League, President Wilson in-formed the Senate when he presented the Treaty tothem early in July 1919, ". . . long-continuedsupervision of the task of reparation which Germany was to undertake to complete within the nextgeneration might entirely break down; 1 the recon-sideration and revision of administrative arrange-ments and restrictions which the Treaty prescribed,but which it recognised might not provide lastingadvantage or be entirely fair if too long enforced,would be impracticable."

Can we look forward with fair hopes to securingfrom the operation of the League those benefits whichtwo of its principal begetters thus encourage us toexpect from it ? The relevant passage is to be foundin Article XIX. of the Covenant, which runs asfollows :

1 President Wilson was mistaken in suggesting that the supervision ofReparation payments has been entrusted to the League of Nations. As Ipointed out in Chapter V., whereas the League is invoked in regard tomost of the continuing economic and territorial provisions of the Treaty, this is not the case as regards Reparation, over the problems and modi-fications of which the Reparation Commission is supreme without appealof any kind to the League of Nations.

R