Allied and Associated Governments and nationals, and agrees specifically to reimburse all civilian damages, beginning with an initial payment of 20,000,000,000 marks, subsequent payments to be secured by bonds to be issued at the discretion of the Reparation Commission. Germany is to pay shipping damage on a ton-for-ton basis by cession of a large part of her merchant, coasting, and river fleets and by new construction; and to devote her economic resources to the rebuilding of the devastated regions.

She agrees to return to the 1914 most-favored-nation tariffs, without discrimination of any sort; to allow Allied and Associated nationals freedom of transit through her territories, and to accept highly detailed provisions as to pre-war debts, unfair competition, internationalization of railroads and rivers, and other economic and financial clauses. She also agrees to the trial of the ex-Kaiser by an international high court for a supreme offense against international morality, and of other nationals for violations of the laws and customs of war, Holland to be asked to extradite the former and Germany being responsible for delivering the latter.

The League of Nations is accepted by the Allied and Associated Powers as operative upon ratification of the treaty and by Germany in principle but without membership. Similarly an international Labor Body is brought into being with a permanent office and an annual convention. A great number of international bodies of different kinds and for different purposes are created, some under the League of Nations, some to execute the peace treaty. Among the former is the commission to govern the Saar Basin until a plebiscite is held fifteen years hence; the internationalized Free City of Danzig guaranteed by the League and under a high commissioner appointed by it; and various commissions for plebiscites in Malmedy, Schleswig, and East Prussia. Among those to carry out the peace treaty are the Reparations, Military, Naval, Air, Financial, and Economic Commissions, the International High Court and military tribunals to fix responsibilities, and a series of bodies for the control of international

rivers.

Certain problems are left for solution between the Allied and Associated Powers, notably details of the disposition of the German fleet and cables, the former German colonies, and the values paid in reparation. Certain other problems, such as the laws of the air and

the opium, arms and liquor traffic, are either agreed to in detail or set for early international action.

During the interval between the opening and closing sessions at Versailles, the negotiations were conducted by the interchange of written communications, as prescribed by the Allies. The first of these was a protest of a general nature from Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau on May 9th, in which he stated that a perusal of the peace conditions showed that "on essential points the basis of the peace of right agreed upon between the belligerents has been abandoned" and that "the draft of the treaty contains demands which no nation could endure." M. Clemenceau replied promptly on May 10th that the terms of the treaty had been formulated "with constant thought of the principles upon which the armistice and the negotiations for peace were proposed," that the Allies "could admit no discussion of their right to insist on the terms of the peace substantially as drafted," and can consider "only such practical suggestions as the German plenipotentiaries may have to submit."

Thereupon the German delegation proceeded to send a series of separate notes concerning particular portions of the terms. They made persistent efforts to bring about oral discussions by suggesting the establishment of special commissions to confer upon and settle the details of the execution of certain sections of the treaty. They transmitted counter proposals on the question of the League of Nations and the agreement on labor legislation. They objected to the provisions regarding repatriation of prisoners of war and interned civilians, the sections on responsibility for the war and reparations, territorial adjustments and the financial and economic provisions. To all of these the Allies gave prompt replies, unequivocally maintaining their terms as submitted to the Germans.

The time limit of two weeks set for the reception of the complete German reply expired on May 21. On May 20th the German delegation stated that it would be impossible to hand in their complete reply within the time allowed, and asked for an extension, which was granted until May 29th. On that date, observations on the entire treaty, including the substance of the notes previously exchanged, were handed to the Allies by the German delegation. These observations were considered until June 16th, when the Allies made a detailed reply to them. Both the German observations and the Allied reply are very bulky documents. They were accompanied by covering letters

giving general summaries of the contents of the documents. These letters are reproduced below:

Letter transmitting German observations on the draft Treaty of Peace 3 MR. PRESIDENT:

I have the honor to transmit to you herewith the observations of the German delegation on the draft Treaty of Peace. We came to Versailles in the expectation of receiving a peace proposal based on the agreed principles. We were firmly resolved to do everything in our power with a view of fulfilling the grave obligations which we had undertaken. We hoped for the peace of justice which had been promised to us. We were aghast when we read in documents the demands made upon us, the victorious violence of our enemies. The more deeply we penetrate into the spirit of this treaty, the more convinced we become of the impossibility of carrying it out. The exactions of this treaty are more than the German people can bear.

With a view to the reestablishment of the Polish state we must renounce indisputably German territory-nearly the whole of the Province of West Prussia, which is preponderantly German; of Pomerania; Danzig, which is German to the core; we must let that ancient Hanse town be transformed into a free state under Polish suzerainty. We must agree that East Prussia shall be amputated from the body of the state, condemned to a lingering death, and robbed of its northern portion, including Memel, which is purely German. We must renounce Upper Silesia for the benefit of Poland and Czechoslovakia, although it has been in close political connection with Germany for more than 750 years, is instinct with German life, and forms the very foundation of industrial life throughout East Germany.

Preponderantly German circles (Kreise) must be ceded to Belgium, without sufficient guarantees that the plebiscite, which is only to take place afterward, will be independent. The purely German district of the Saar must be detached from our empire, and the way must be paved for its subsequent annexation to France, although we owe her debts in coal only, not in men.

For fifteen years Rhenish territory must be occupied, and after those fifteen years the Allies have power to refuse the restoration of the country; in the interval the Allies can take every measure to sever the economic and moral links with the mother country, and finally to misrepresent the wishes of the indigenous population.

Although the exaction of the cost of the war has been expressly renounced, yet Germany, thus cut in pieces and weakened, must declare herself ready in principle to bear all the war expenses of her enemies, which would exceed many times over the total amount of German state and private assets.

Meanwhile her enemies demand, in excess of the agreed conditions, reparation for damage suffered by their civil population, and in this connection Germany must also go bail for her allies. The sum to be paid is to be fixed by our enemies unilaterally, and to admit of subsequent modification and increase. No limit is fixed, save the capacity of the German people for payment, determined 3 Current History, July, 1919, pp. 17-19.

not by their standard of life, but solely by their capacity to meet the demands of their enemies by their labor. The German people would thus be condemned to perpetual slave labor.

In spite of the exorbitant demands, the reconstruction of our economic life is at the same time rendered impossible. We must surrender our merchant fleet. We are to renounce all foreign securities. We are to hand over to our enemies our property in all German enterprises abroad, even in the countries of our allies. Even after the conclusion of peace the enemy states are to have the right of confiscating all German property. No German trader in their countries will be protected from these war measures. We must completely renounce our colonies, and not even German missionaries shall have the right to follow their calling therein. We must thus renounce the realization of all our aims in the spheres of politics, economics, and ideas.

Even in internal affairs we are to give up the right to self-determination. The International Reparation Commission receives dictatorial powers over the whole life of our people in economic and cultural matters. Its authority extends far beyond that which the Empire, the German Federal Council, and the Reichstag combined ever possessed within the territory of the Empire. This commission has unlimited control over the economic life of the state, of communities, and of individuals. Further, the entire educational and sanitary system depends on it. It can keep the whole German people in mental thralldom. In order to increase the payments due, by the thrall, the commission can hamper measures for the social protection of the German worker.

In other spheres, also, Germany's sovereignty is abolished. Her chief waterways are subjected to international administration; she must construct in her territory such canals and such railways as her enemies wish; she must agree to treaties the contents of which are unknown to her, to be concluded by her enemies with the new states on the east, even when they concern her own functions. The German people is excluded from the League of Nations, to which is intrusted all work of common interest to the world.

Thus must a whole people sign the decree for its own proscription, nay, its own death sentence.

Germany knows that she must make sacrifices in order to attain peace. Germany knows that she has, by agreement, undertaken to make these sacrifices, and will go in this matter to the utmost limits of her capacity.

1. Germany offers to proceed with her own disarmament in advance of all other peoples, in order to show that she will help to usher in the new era of the peace of justice. She gives up universal compulsory service and reduces her army to 100,000 men, except as regards temporary measures. She even renounces the warships which her enemies are still willing to leave in her hands. She stipulates, however, that she shall be admitted forthwith as a state with equal rights into the League of Nations. . . . She stipulates that a genuine League of Nations shall come into being, embracing all peoples of good-will, even her enemies of to-day. The League must be inspired by a feeling of responsibility toward mankind and have at its disposal a power to enforce its will sufficiently strong and trusty to protect the frontiers of its members.

2. In territorial questions, Germany takes up her position unreservedly on the ground of the Wilson program. She renounces her sovereign right in AlsaceLorraine, but wishes a free plebiscite to take place there. She gives up the greater part of the province of Posen, the district incontestably Polish in population, together with the capital. She is prepared to grant to Poland, under international guarantees, free and secure access to the sea by ceding free ports at Danzig, Königsberg and Memel, by an agreement regulating the navigation of the Vistula and by special railway conventions. Germany is prepared to insure the supply of coal for the economic needs of France, especially from the Sarre region, until such time as the French mines are once more in working order. The preponderantly Danish districts of Schleswig will be given up to Denmark on the basis of a plebiscite. Germany demands that the right of self-determination shall also be respected where the interests of the Germans in Austria and Bohemia are concerned.

She is ready to subject all her colonies to administration by the community of the League of Nations, if she is recognized as its mandatary.

3. Germany is prepared to make payments incumbent on her in accordance with the agreed program of peace up to a maximum sum of 100,000,000,000 gold marks, 20,000,000,000 by May 1, 1926, and the balance (80,000,000,000) in annual payments, without interest. These payments shall in principle be equal to a fixed percentage of the German Imperial and State revenues. The annual payment shall approximate to the former peace budget. For the first ten years the annual payments shall not exceed 1,000,000,000 gold marks a year. The German taxpayer shall not be less heavily burdened than the taxpayer of the most heavily burdened state among those represented on the Reparation Commission.

Germany presumes in this connection that she will not have to make any territorial sacrifices beyond those mentioned above, and that she will recover her freedom of economic movement at home and abroad.

4. Germany is prepared to devote her entire economic strength to the service of the reconstruction. She wishes to cooperate effectively in the reconstruction of the devastated regions of Belgium and Northern France. To make good the loss in production of the destroyed mines of Northern France, up to 20,000,000 tons of coal will be delivered annually for the first five years, and up to 80,000,000 tons for the next five years. Germany will facilitate further deliveries of coal to France, Belgium, Italy, and Luxemburg.

Germany is, moreover, prepared to make considerable deliveries of benzol, coal tar, and sulphate of ammonia, as well as dye-stuffs and medicines.

5. Finally, Germany offers to put her entire merchant tonnage into a pool of the world's shipping, to place at the disposal of her enemies a part of her freight space as part payment of reparation, and to build for them, in a series of years in German yards, an amount of tonnage exceeding their demands.

6. In order to replace the river boats destroyed in Belgium and Northern France, Germany offers river craft from her own resources.

7. Germany thinks that she sees an appropriate method for the prompt fulfillment of her obligation to make reparations conceding participation in coal mines to insure deliveries of coal.