iv THE REPARATION BILL 113

1921 the French . Prime Minister was able to tell hisSenate that 95 per cent of the cultivable land had beenre-levelled and that 90 per cent had been ploughedand was producing crops. Some go so far as to main-tain that the fertility of the soil has been actuallyimproved by the disturbance of its surface and by itslying fallow for several years. But apart from itshaving proved easier than was anticipated to makegood this category of damage, the total cultivatedarea (excluding woodland) of the whole of the elevenDepartments affected was about 6,650,000 acres, ofwhich 270,000 acres were in the " zone of destruc-tion," 2,000,000 acres in the " zone of trenches andbombardment," and 4,200,000 acres in the " zone ofsimple occupation." The claim, therefore, averagedover the whole area, works out at about £90 per acre,and averaged over the first two categories above, atabout £260 per acre. This claim, though it is de-scribed as being in respect of unbuilt-on land, probablyincludes farm buildings (other than houses), imple-ments, live stock, and the growing crops of August1914. As experience has proved that the permanentqualities of the land have only been seriously impairedover a small area, these latter items should probablyconstitute the major part of the claim. We have alsoto allow for destruction of woodlands. But evenwith high estimates for each of these items, I donot see how we could reach a total above a third ofthe amount actually claimed.

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