A REVISION OF THE TREATY

CHAP.

which are based on this, we are back in the atmo-sphere of Parisian finance,—so grasping, faithless,and extravagantly unveracious as to defeat in theend its own objects.

For let us compare some of these items of devasta-tion with the claims lodged.

(1) 293,733 houses were totally destroyed and296,502 were partially destroyed. Since nearly allthe latter have been repaired, we shall not be under-estimating the damage in assuming, for the purposesof a rough comparison, that, on the average, thedamaged houses were half destroyed, which gives usaltogether the equivalent of 442,000 houses totallydestroyed. Turning back, we find that the FrenchGovernment's claim for damage to houses was 16,768million gold marks, that is to say, £l,006,000,000. 1Dividing this sum by the number of houses, we findan average claim of £2275 per house ! 2 This is a

Cultivated Land Acres.

At the Armistice : Totally destroyed .... 4,693,516

By July 1921 : Levelled...... 4,067,408

Ploughed...... 3,528,950

Live Stock

1914.

Nov. 1918.

July 1921.

Cattle.....

Horses, donkeys, and mules .

Sheep and goats

Pigs......

890,084412,730958,308357,003

57,50032,60069,10025,000

478,000235,40027G.700169,000

1 Assuming an exchange of £1 = §4.

2 Even if we assumed that every house which had been injured at allwas totally destroyed, the figure would work out at about £1700.