the idea of becoming one of the federated states of the German
Republic, and, if possible, northern Germany should be kept entirely
separate from southern. The Allies should divide the Teutons in order to
sway them. All Germany's other frontiers should be delimitated in a like
spirit. And at the same time the work of knitting together the peoples
and nations of Europe and forming them into a friendly sodality was to
go forward without interruption.

"How to promote our interests in the Rhineland," wrote M. Maurice
Barres,[297] "is a life-and-death question for us. We are going to carry
to the Rhine our military and, I hope, our economic frontier. The rest
will follow in its own good time. The future will not fail to secure for
us the acquiescence of the population of the Rhineland, who will live
freely under the protection of our arms, their faces turned toward
Paris."

Financially it was proposed that the Teutons should be forced to
indemnify France, Belgium, and the other countries for all the damage
they had inflicted upon them; to pay the entire cost of the war, as well
as the pensions to widows, orphans, and the mutilated. And the military
occupation of their country should be maintained until this huge debt is
wholly wiped out.

A Nationalist organ,[298] in a leading article, stated with brevity and
clearness the prevailing view of Germany's obligations. Here is a
characteristic passage: "She is rich, has reserves derived from many
years of former prosperity; she can work to produce and repair all the
evil she has done, rebuild all the ruins she has accumulated, and
restore all the fortunes she has destroyed, however irksome the burden."
After analyzing Doctor Helfferich's report published six years ago, the
article concluded, "Germany must pay; she disposes of the means because
she is rich; if she refuses we must compel her without hesitation and
without ruth."

As France, whose cities and towns and very soil were ruined, could not
be asked to restore these places at her own expense and tax herself
drastically like her allies, the Americans and British, the prior and
privileged right to receive payment on her share of the indemnity should
manifestly appertain to her. Her allies and associates should, it was
argued, accordingly waive their money claims until hers were satisfied
in full. Moreover, as France's future expenditure on her army of
occupation, on the administration of her colonies and of the annexed