d generosity
agree together, and the policy which will best promote immediate
friendship between nations will not conflict with the permanent
interests of the benefactor.[168]

3. _An International Loan_

I pass to a second financial proposal. The requirements of Europe are
_immediate_. The prospect of being relieved of oppressive interest
payments to England and America over the whole life of the next two
generations (and of receiving from Germany some assistance year by year
to the costs of restoration) would free the future from excessive
anxiety. But it would not meet the ills of the immediate present,--the
excess of Europe's imports over her exports, the adverse exchange, and
the disorder of the currency. It will be very difficult for European
production to get started again without a temporary measure of external
assistance. I am therefore a supporter of an international loan in some
shape or form, such as has been advocated in many quarters in France,
Germany, and England, and also in the United States. In whatever way the
ultimate responsibility for repayment is distributed, the burden of
finding the immediate resources must inevitably fall in major part upon
the United States.

The chief objections to all the varieties of this species of project
are, I suppose, the following. The United States is disinclined to
entangle herself further (after recent experiences) in the affairs or
Europe, and, anyhow, has for the time being no more capital to spare for
export on a large scale. There is no guarantee that Europe will put
financial assistance to proper use, or that she will not squander it and
be in just as bad case two or three years hence as she is in now;--M.
Klotz will use the money to put off the day of taxation a little longer,
Italy and Jugo-Slavia will fight one another on the proceeds, Poland
will devote it to fulfilling towards all her neighbors the military role
which France has designed for her, the governing classes of Roumania
will divide up the booty amongst themselves. In short, America would
have postponed her own capital developments and raised her own cost of
living in order that Europe might continue for another year or two the
practices, the policy, and the men of the past nine months. And as for
assistance to Germany, is it reasonable or at all tolerable that the
European Allies, having stripped Germany of her last vestige of working
capital, in opposition to the arguments and appeals of