ious how far
the Danish Government is under an obligation to make payments to the
Reparation Commission in respect of its acquisition of Schleswig. They
might, for instance, arrange for various offsets such as the value of
the mark notes held by the inhabitants of ceded areas. In any case the
amount of money involved is quite small. The Danish Government is
raising a loan for $33,000,000 (kr. 120,000,000) for the joint purposes
of "taking over Schleswig's share of the German debt, for buying German
public property, for helping the Schleswig population, and for settling
the currency question."

[126] Here again my own judgment would carry me much further
and I should doubt the possibility of Germany's exports equaling her
imports during this period. But the statement in the text goes far
enough for the purpose of my argument.

[127] It has been estimated that the cession of territory to
France, apart from the loss of Upper Silesia, may reduce Germany's
annual pre-war production of steel ingots from 20,000,000 tons to
14,000,000 tons, and increase France's capacity from 5,000,000 tons to
11,000,000 tons.

[128] Germany's exports of sugar in 1913 amounted to 1,110,073
tons of the value of $65,471,500, of which 838,583 tons were exported to
the United Kingdom at a value of $45,254,000. These figures were in
excess of the normal, the average total exports for the five years
ending 1913 being about $50,000,000.

[129] The necessary price adjustment, which is required, on
both sides of this account, will be made _en bloc_ later.

[130] If the amount of the sinking fund be reduced, and the
annual payment is continued over a greater number of years, the present
value--so powerful is the operation of compound interest--cannot be
materially increased. A payment of $500,000,000 annually _in
perpetuity_, assuming interest, as before, at 5 per cent, would only
raise the present value to $10,000,000,000.

[131] As an example of public misapprehension on economic
affairs, the following letter from Sir Sidney Low to _The Times_ of the
3rd December, 1918, deserves quotation: "I have seen authoritative
estimates which place the gross value of Germany's mineral and chemical
resources as high as $1,250,000,000,000 or even more; and the Ruhr basin
mines alone are said to be worth over $225,000,000,000. It is certain,
at any rate, that the capital value of these natural supplies is much
greater than the total war debts of all the Alli