CHAPTER IV

THE REPARATION BILL

The Treaty of Versailles specified the classes ofdamage in respect of which Germany was to payReparation. It made no attempt to assess theamount of this damage. This duty was assigned tothe Reparation Commission, who were instructed tonotify their assessment to the German Governmenton or before May 1, 1921.

An attempt was made during the Peace Conference to agree to a figure there and then for insertion inthe Treaty . The American delegates in particularfavoured this course. But an agreement could notbe reached. There was no reasonable figure whichwas not seriously inadequate to popular expectationsin France and the British Empire. 1 The highestfigure to which the Americans would agree, namely,140 milliard gold marks, was, as we shall see below,

1 A fairly adequate account of this controversy during the PeaceConference can be pieced together from the following passages : Baruch,Making of Reparation and Economic Sections of the Treaty, pp. 45-55 ;Lamont, What Really Happened at Paris, pp. 262-265 ; Tardieu, The Truthabout the Treaty, pp. 294-309.

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