ii FROM THE TREATY TO CONFERENCE OF LONDON 19

Brussels, shortly before Christmas 1920, to ascertainfacts and to explore the situation generally. This wasa conference of " experts " as distinguished from theconferences of " statesmen" which preceded andfollowed it.

The work of the Brussels experts was so largelyignored and overthrown by the meetings of the states-men at Paris shortly afterwards, that it is not nowworth while to review it in detail. It marked, how-ever, a new phase in our relations with Germany . Theofficials of the two sides met in an informal fashionand talked together like rational beings. They wererepresentative of the pick of what might be called" international officialdom," cynical, humane, intelli-gent, with a strong bias towards facts and a realistictreatment. Both sides believed that progress wasbeing made towards a solution ; mutual respect wasfostered ; and a sincere regret was shared at the earlyabandonment of reasonable conversations.

The Brussels experts did not feel themselves freeto consider an average payment less than that con-templated at Boulogne. They recommended to theAllied Governments, accordingly, (1) that duringthe five years from 1921 to 1926 Germany shouldpay an average annuity of £150,000,000 (gold), butthat this average annuity should be so spread overthe five years that less than this amount would bepayable in the first two years and more in the lasttwo years, the question of the amount of subsequent