ii THE LEGALITY OF OCCUPYING GERMANY 53

Germany is in technical default in regard to any partof the Treaty , that is to say, since some parts ofthe Treaty are incapable of literal fulfilment, at anytime. In particular the French Government main-tained in April 1921 that so long as Germany possessedany tangible assets, she was in voluntary default inrespect of Reparation, and that if she was in voluntarydefault any Ally was entitled to invade and pillageher territory without being guilty of an act of war.In the previous month the Allies as a whole had arguedthat default under Chapters of the Treaty , other thanthe Reparation Chapter, also justified invasion.

Though the respect shown for legality is now verysmall, the legal position under the Treaty deservesnevertheless an exact examination.

The Treaty of Versailles expressly provides forbreaches by Germany of the Reparation Chapter. Itcontains no special provision for breaches of otherChapters, and such breaches are, therefore, in exactlythe same position as breaches of any other Treaty .Accordingly, I will discuss separately default inrespect of Reparation, and other defaults.

Sections 17 and 18 of the Reparation Chapter,Annex II., run as follows :

" (17) In case of default by Germany in the per-formance of any obligation under this part of thepresent Treaty, the Commission will forthwith givenotice of such default to each of the interested Powers,and will make such recommendations as to the action