When the Peace Conference reassembled in Paris the situation concerning the indemnity was as follows.  The Entente had never during the War spoken of indemnity as a condition of peace.  Wilson, in his proposals, had spoken only of reconstruction of invaded territories.  The request for reparation des dommages had been included in the terms of the armistice merely to afford a moral satisfaction to France.  But the campaign waged in France and during the elections in England had exaggerated the demands so as to include not only reparation for damage but reimbursement of the cost of the War.

Only the United States maintained that the indemnity should be limited to the reparation of the damages:  a reparation which in later phases included not only reconstruction of destroyed territories and damage done to private property, but even pensions to the families of those dead in the War and the sums in grant paid during it.

When Prussia beat France in 1870 she asked for an indemnity of five milliards.  The Entente could have demanded from the vanquished an indemnity and then have reassumed relations with them provided it were an indemnity which they could pay in a brief period of time.

Instead, it being impossible to demand an enormous sum of 300 or 400 milliards, a difficult figure to fix definitely, recourse was had to another expedient.

From the moment that the phrase reparation des dommages was included in the armistice treaty as a claim that could be urged, it became impossible to ask for a fixed sum.  What was to be asked for was neither more nor less than the amount of the damages.  Hence a special commission was required, and the Reparations Commission appears on the scene to decide the sum to demand from Germany and to control its payment.  Also even after Germany was disarmed a portion of her territory must remain in the Allies’ hands as a guarantee for the execution of the treaty.

The reason why France has always been opposed to a rapid conclusion of the indemnity question is that she may continue to have the right, in view of the question remaining still open, to occupy the left bank of the Rhine and to keep the bridgeheads indicated in the treaty.

The thesis supported by Clemenceau at the Conference was a simple one:  Germany must recognize the total amount of her debt; it is not enough to say that we recognize it.

I demand in the name of the French Government, and after having consulted my colleagues, that the Peace Treaty fixes Germany’s debt to us and indicates the nature of the damages for which reparation is due.  We will fix a period of thirty years if you so wish it, and we will give to the Commission, after it has reduced the debt to figures, the mandate to make Germany pay within these thirty years all she owes us.  If the whole debt cannot be paid in thirty years the Commission will have the right to extend the time for payment.