2. Property in ceded Territory or surrendered under the Armistice

As the Treaty has been drafted Germany will not receive important credits available towards meeting reparation in respect of her property in ceded territory.

Private property in most of the ceded territory is utilized towards discharging private German debts to Allied nationals, and only the surplus, if any, is available towards Reparation.  The value of such property in Poland and the other new States is payable direct to the owners.

Government property in Alsace-Lorraine, in territory ceded to Belgium, and in Germany’s former colonies transferred to a Mandatory, is to be forfeited without credit given.  Buildings, forests, and other State property which belonged to the former Kingdom of Poland are also to be surrendered without credit.  There remain, therefore, Government properties, other than the above, surrendered to Poland, Government properties in Schleswig surrendered to Denmark,[125] the value of the Saar coalfields, the value of certain river craft, etc., to be surrendered under the Ports, Waterways, and Railways Chapter, and the value of the German submarine cables transferred under Annex VII. of the Reparation Chapter.

Whatever the Treaty may say, the Reparation Commission will not secure any cash payments from Poland.  I believe that the Saar coalfields have been valued at from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000.  A round figure of $150,000,000 for all the above items, excluding any surplus available in respect of private property, is probably a liberal estimate.

Then remains the value of material surrendered under the Armistice.  Article 250 provides that a credit shall be assessed by the Reparation Commission for rolling-stock surrendered under the Armistice as well as for certain other specified items, and generally for any material so surrendered for which the Reparation Commission think that credit should be given, “as having non-military value.”  The rolling-stock (150,000 wagons and 5,000 locomotives) is the only very valuable item.  A round figure of $250,000,000, for all the Armistice surrenders, is probably again a liberal estimate.

We have, therefore, $400,000,000 to add in respect of this heading to our figure of $1,250,000,000 to $1,750,000,000 under the previous heading.  This figure differs from the preceding in that it does not represent cash capable of benefiting the financial situation of the Allies, but is only a book credit between themselves or between them and Germany.

The total of $1,650,000,000 to $2,150,000,000 now reached is not, however, available for Reparation.  The first charge upon it, under Article 251 of the Treaty, is the cost of the Armies of Occupation both during the Armistice and after the conclusion of Peace.  The aggregate of this figure up to May, 1921, cannot be calculated until the rate of withdrawal is known which is to reduce the monthly cost from the figure exceeding $100,000,000, which prevailed during the first part of 1919, to that of $5,000,000, which is to be the normal figure eventually.  I estimate, however, that this aggregate may be about $1,000,000,000.  This leaves us with from $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 still in hand.