112

A REVISION OF THE TREATY

CHAP.

of 57 were in operation, and at Roubaix 46 outof 48. 1

Altogether 11,500 industrial establishments aresaid to have been interfered with, but this includesevery village workshop, and about three-quarters ofthem employed less than 20 persons. Half of themwere at work again by the spring of 1921. What isthe average claim made on their behalf ? Deductingthe coal mines as above and dividing the total claimby 11,500, we reach an average figure of £8500. Theexaggeration seems prima facie on as high a scale asin the case of houses and furniture.

(4) The remaining item of importance is forunbuilt-on land. The claim under this head is for9850 million gold marks, or about £590,000,000sterling. M. Tardieu (op. cit. p. 347) quotes Mr. LloydGeorge as follows, in the course of a discussion duringthe Peace Conference in which he was pointing outthe excessive character of the French claims : "Ifyou had to spend the money which you ask for thereconstruction of the devastated regions of the Northof France , I assert that you could not manage tospend it. Besides, the land is still there. Althoughit has been badly upheaved in parts, it has not dis-appeared. Even if you put the Chemin des Damesup to auction, you would find buyers." Mr. LloydGeorge 's view has been justified by events. In April

1 I take these figures from M. Tardieu, who argues, most illuminatingly,in alternate chapters, according to his thesis for the time being, thatreconstruction has hardly begun, and that it is nearly finished.