d was
not really half what could have been raised. I have it on good authority
that two of the American delegates hadn't known where Austria Proper
was and thought that Unredeemed Italy was on the East side of New York,
while the Chinese Delegate thought that the Cameroons were part of
Scotland. But it is these little geographic niceties that lend a charm
to European politics that ours lack forever.

I don't mean to say the English politics always turn on romantic places
or on small questions. They don't. They often include questions of the
largest order. But when the English introduce a really large question as
the basis of their politics they like to select one that is insoluble.
This guarantees that it will last. Take for example the rights of the
Crown as against the people. That lasted for one hundred years,--all the
seventeenth century. In Oklahoma or in Alberta they would have called a
convention on the question, settled it in two weeks and spoiled it for
further use. In the same way the Protestant Reformation was used for a
hundred years and the Reform Bill for a generation.

At the present time the genius of the English for politics has selected
as their insoluble political question the topic of the German indemnity.
The essence of the problem as I understand it may be stated as follows:

It was definitely settled by the Conference at Versailles that Germany
is to pay the Allies 3,912,486,782,421 marks. I think that is the
correct figure, though of course I am speaking only from memory. At any
rate, the correct figure is within a hundred billion marks of the above.

The sum to be paid was not reached without a great deal of discussion.
Monsieur Briand, the French Minister, is reported to have thrown out the
figure 4,281,390,687,471. But Mr. Lloyd George would not pick it up. Nor
do I blame him unless he had a basket to pick it up with.

Lloyd George's point of view was that the Germans could very properly
pay a limited amount such as 3,912,486,782,421 marks, but it was not
feasible to put on them a burden of 4,281,390,687,471 marks.

By the way, if any one at this point doubts the accuracy of the figures
just given, all he has to do is to take the amount of the indemnity as
stated in gold marks and then multiply it by the present value of the
mark and he will find to his chagrin that the figures are correct. If he
is still not satisfied I refer him to a book of Logarithms. If he is not
satisfied with that