170 A REVISION OF THE TREATY chap.

prosperity of a greater amplitude than ever before ;but there are indications that the worst point ispassed.

Two obstacles remain. The Treaty , though un-executed, is not revised. And that part of organisa-tion, which consists in currency regulation, publicfinance, and the foreign exchanges, remains nearly asbad as it ever was. In most European countries thereis still no proper balance between the expenditure ofthe State and its income, so that inflation continuesand the international values of their currencies arefluctuating and uncertain. The suggestions whichfollow are mainly directed towards these problems.

Some contemporary plans for the reconstructionof Europe err in being too paternal or too compli-cated ; also, sometimes, in being too pessimistic. Thepatients need neither drugs nor surgery, but healthyand natural surroundings in which they can exerttheir own recuperative powers. Therefore a goodplan must be in the main negative ; it must consistin getting rid of shackles, in simplifying the situation,in cancelling futile but injurious entanglements. Atpresent every one is faced by obligations which theycannot meet. Until the problem set to the FinanceMinisters of Europe is a possible one, there can belittle incentive to energy or to the exercise of skill.But if the situation was made such that an insolventcountry could have only itself to blame, then the