c
organization to enable her to continue to make Reparation payments in
future.[137]

6. The Commission will assess the value, without appeal or arbitration,
of the property and rights ceded under the Armistice, and under the
Treaty,--roiling-stock, the mercantile marine, river craft, cattle, the
Saar mines, the property in ceded territory for which credit is to be
given, and so forth.

7. The Commission will determine the amounts and values (within certain
defined limits) of the contributions which Germany is to make in kind
year by year under the various Annexes to the Reparation Chapter.

8. The Commission will provide for the restitution by Germany of
property which can be identified.

9. The Commission will receive, administer, and distribute all receipts
from Germany in cash or in kind. It will also issue and market German
bonds of indebtedness.

10. The Commission will assign the share of the pre-war public debt to
be taken over by the ceded areas of Schleswig, Poland, Danzig, and Upper
Silesia. The Commission will also distribute the public debt of the late
Austro-Hungarian Empire between its constituent parts.

11. The Commission will liquidate the Austro-Hungarian Bank, and will
supervise the withdrawal and replacement of the currency system of the
late Austro-Hungarian Empire.

12. It is for the Commission to report if, in their judgment, Germany is
falling short in fulfillment of her obligations, and to advise methods
of coercion.

13. In general, the Commission, acting through a subordinate body, will
perform the same functions for Austria and Bulgaria as for Germany, and
also, presumably, for Hungary and Turkey.[138]

There are also many other relatively minor duties assigned to the
Commission. The above summary, however, shows sufficiently the scope and
significance of its authority. This authority is rendered of far greater
significance by the fact that the demands of the Treaty generally exceed
Germany's capacity. Consequently the clauses which allow the Commission
to make abatements, if in their judgment the economic conditions of
Germany require it, will render it in many different particulars the
arbiter of Germany's economic life. The Commission is not only to
inquire into Germany's general capacity to pay, and to decide (in the
early years) what import of foodstuffs and raw materials is necessary;
it is authorized to exert pressure on the German system of taxation
(Annex II. para. 12(_b