And yet M. Klotz should have known better.  For he was supplied with definite data to go upon.  In October, 1918, the French government, in doubt about the full significance of that one of Mr. Wilson’s Fourteen Points which dealt with reparations, asked officially for explanations, and received from Mr. Lansing the answer by telegraph that it involved the making good by the enemy of all losses inflicted directly and lawlessly upon civilians, but none other.  That surely was a plain answer and a just principle.  But, in accordance with the practice of secrecy in vogue among Allied European governments, the nation was not informed of these restrictive conditions, but was allowed to hug dangerous delusions.

But the Ministers knew them, and M. Klotz was a Minister.  Not only, however, did he not reveal what he knew, but he behaved as though his information was of a directly contrary tenor, and he also stated that Germany must also refund the war indemnities of 1870, capitalized down to November, 1918, and he set down the sum at fifty milliards of francs.  This procedure was not what reasonably might have been expected from the leader of a heroic nation stout-hearted enough to face unpleasant facts.  Some of the leading spirits in the country, despite the intensity of their feelings toward Germany, disapproved this kind of bookkeeping, but M. Klotz did not relinquish his method of keeping accounts.  He drew up a bill against the Teutons for one thousand and eighty-six milliards of francs.

The Germans at the Conference maintained that if the wealth of their nation were realized and liquid, it would amount at most to four hundred milliards, but that to realize it would involve the stripping of the population of everything—­of its forests, its mines, its railways, its factories, its cattle, its houses, its furniture, and its ready money.  They further pleaded that the territorial clauses of the Treaty deprived them of important resources, which would reduce their solvency to a greater degree than the Allies realized.  These clauses dispossessed the nation of 21 per cent. of the total crops of cereals and potatoes.  A further falling off in the quantities of food produced would result from the restrictions on the importation of raw materials for the manufacture of fertilizers.  Of her coal, Germany was forfeiting about one-third; three-fourths of her iron ore was also being taken away from her; her total zinc production would be cut down by over three-fifths.  Add to this the enormous shortage of tonnage, machinery, and man-power, the total loss of her colonies, the shrinkage of available raw stuffs, and the depreciation of the mark.