[82] It should be added, in fairness, that the very high claims
put forward on behalf of Belgium generally include not only devastation
proper, but all kinds of other items, as, for example, the profits and
earnings which Belgians might reasonably have expected to earn if there
had been no war.

[83] "The Wealth and Income of the Chief Powers," by J.C. Stamp
(_Journal of the Royal Statistical Society_, July, 1919).

[84] Other estimates vary from $12,100,000,000 to
$13,400,000,000. See Stamp, _loc. cit._

[85] This was clearly and courageously pointed out by M.
Charles Gide in _L'Emancipation_ for February, 1919.

[86] For details of these and other figures, see Stamp, _loc.
cit._

[87] Even when the extent of the material damage has been
established, it will be exceedingly difficult to put a price on it,
which must largely depend on the period over which restoration is
spread, and the methods adopted. It would be impossible to make the
damage good in a year or two at any price, and an attempt to do so at a
rate which was excessive in relation to the amount of labor and
materials at hand might force prices up to almost any level. We must, I
think, assume a cost of labor and materials about equal to that current
in the world generally. In point of fact, however, we may safely assume
that literal restoration will never be attempted. Indeed, it would be
very wasteful to do so. Many of the townships were old and unhealthy,
and many of the hamlets miserable. To re-erect the same type of building
in the same places would be foolish. As for the land, the wise course
may be in some cases to leave long strips of it to Nature for many years
to come. An aggregate money sum should be computed as fairly
representing the value of the material damage, and France should be left
to expend it in the manner she thinks wisest with a view to her economic
enrichment as a whole. The first breeze of this controversy has already
blown through France. A long and inconclusive debate occupied the
Chamber during the spring of 1919, as to whether inhabitants of the
devastated area receiving compensation should be compelled to expend it
in restoring the identical property, or whether they should be free to
use it as they like. There was evidently a great deal to be said on both
sides; in the former case there would be much hardship and uncertainty
for owners who could not, many of them, expect to recover the effective
use of their property