FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  
ction of the invaded countries, with the right to exact from Germany, as part reparations, the delivery of machinery, heating apparatus, furniture, etc. Reimbursement to Belgium of all the sums loaned to her by the allied and associated Powers during the War. Compensation for the losses and damages sustained by the civilian population of the allied and associated Powers during the period in which they were at war with Germany (Art. 232 and Part viii, I). Payment, during the first two years, of twenty milliard marks in gold or by the delivery of goods, shipping, etc., on account of compensation (Art. 235). The reparations owed by Germany concern chiefly: 1st. Damages and loss of life and property sustained by the civilian population. 2nd. Damages sustained by civilian victims of cruelty, violence or ill-treatment. 3rd. Damages caused on occupied or invaded territories. 4th. Damages through cruelty to and ill-treatment of prisoners of war. 5th. Pensions and compensations of all kinds paid by the allied and associated Powers to the military victims of the War and to their families. 6th. Subsidies paid by the allied and associated Powers to the families and other dependents of men having served in the army, etc., etc. (Part viii, I). These expenses, which have been calculated at varying figures, commencing from 350 billions, have undergone considerable fluctuations. I have given the general lines of the Treaty of Versailles. The other treaties, far less important, inasmuch as the situation of all the losing countries was already well defined, especially as regards territorial questions, by the Treaty of Versailles, are cast in the same mould and contain no essential variation. Now these treaties constitute an absolutely new fact, and no one can affirm that the Treaty of Versailles derives even remotely from the declarations of the Entente and from Wilson's solemn pledges uttered in the name of those who took part in the War. If the terms of the armistice were deeply in contrast with the pledges to which the Entente Powers had bound themselves before the whole world, the Treaty of Versailles and the other treaties deriving therefrom are a deliberate negation of all that had been promised, amounting to a debt of honour, and which had contributed much more powerfully towards the defeat of the enemy than the entry in the field of many fresh divisions. In the state of extreme exhaustion in whic
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Powers

 

Treaty

 

Versailles

 

Damages

 

allied

 

civilian

 

sustained

 

treaties

 
Germany
 

treatment


pledges

 

Entente

 

families

 
cruelty
 

victims

 
reparations
 
invaded
 
delivery
 

countries

 
population

affirm

 

territorial

 

Wilson

 

derives

 

questions

 

declarations

 

remotely

 

defined

 

essential

 
variation

constitute
 
absolutely
 
powerfully
 

defeat

 

honour

 

contributed

 
extreme
 
exhaustion
 
divisions
 

amounting


promised
 

armistice

 

deeply

 

uttered

 

contrast

 

therefrom

 

deliberate

 

negation

 

deriving

 

losing