148 A REVISION OF THE TREATY chap.

the American Delegation should dissent, and ifnecessary dissent publicly, from a procedure which." is clearly inconsistent with what we deliberatelyled the enemy to expect and cannot now honourablyalter simply because we have the power." 1

After this the discussions entered on a newphase. The British and French Prime Ministersabandoned the contentions of their delegates, ad-mitted the bmding force of the words contained intheir Note of November 5, 1918, and settled downto extract some meaning from these words whichwould compose their differences and satisfy theirconstituents. What constituted " damage done tothe civilian population " ? Could not this be madeto cover military pensions and the separation allow-ances which had been made to the civilian dependantsof soldiers % If so, the bill against Germany couldbe raised to a high enough figure to satisfy nearlyevery one. It was pointed out, however, as Mr.Baruch records, " that financial loss resulting fromthe absence of a wage-earner did not cause any more' damage to the civilian population ' than did an equalfinancial loss involved in the payment of taxes toprovide military equipment and like war costs."In fact, a separation allowance or a pension wassimply one of many general charges on the Ex-chequer arising out of the costs of the war. If suchcharges were to be admitted as civilian damage,

1 Baruch, op. ext. p. 25.