ch. in THE BURDEN OF THE LONDON SETTLEMENT 59

itself. Allied Finance Ministers have encouragedthemselves (or their constituents) with the hope thatsome part of the capital sum of Germany 's liabilitiesmight be anticipated by the sale to private investorsof Bonds secured on future Separation payments.For this purpose it was necessary that Germany should deliver negotiable Bonds . These Bonds donot constitute any additional burden on Germany .They are simply documents constituting a title tothe sums which, under other clauses, Germany is topay over annually to the Reparation Commission.

The advantages to the Allies of marketing suchBonds are obvious. If they could get rid of the Bondsthey would have thrown the risk of Germany 's defaulton to others ; they would have interested a greatnumber of people all over the world in Germany 'snot defaulting ; and they would have secured theactual cash which the exigencies of their Budgetsdemand. But the hope is illusory. When at lasta real settlement is made, it may be practicablefor the German Government to float an internationalloan of moderate amount, well within the world'sestimate of their minimum capacity of payment.But, though there are foolish investors in the world,it would be sanguine to believe that there are somany of such folly as to swallow at this momenton these lines a loan of vast dimensions. It costsFrance at the present time somewhere about 10 percent to float a loan of modest dimensions on the