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A REVISION OF THE TREATY

chap.

in addition £50,000,000 a year for five years, towardsthe discharge of the capital sum remaining over andabove the £400,000,000, namely £1,100,000,000, whichcapital sum, however, would not carry interest pendingrepayment. At the end of five years the rate of re-payment would be reconsidered. The whole proposalwas contingent on the retention of Upper Silesia andthe removal of all impediments to German trade.

The actual substance of this proposal was notunreasonable and probably as good as the Allies willultimately secure. But the figures were far beloweven those of the Brussels experts, and the mode ofputting it forward naturally provoked prejudice. Itwas summarily rejected.

Two days later Mr. Lloyd George read to theGerman Delegation a lecture on the guilt of theircountry, described their proposals as "an offenceand an exasperation," and alleged that their taxeswere " ridiculously low compared with GreatBritain's." He then delivered a formal declarationon behalf of the Allies that Germany was in defaultin respect of " the delivery for trial of the criminalswho have offended against the laws of war, dis-armament, and the payment in cash or kind of£1,000,000,000 (gold)"; and concluded with anultimatum 1 to the effect that unless he heard byMonday (March 7) " that Germany was either preparedto accept the Paris Decisions or to submit proposals

1 The full text is given in Appendix No. IV.