The Reparation Question
What is the essence of the reparation question? Reparation means replacement. The reparation question is the question of replacing the losses caused by the war. Who should replace these losses? Of course, the guilty ones. It seems that those who are guilty in the war should replace all losses. These were the opinions of the diplomatic representatives. This was the opinion of Foch and others, this is the opinion of the leaders of the trade union movement of the Allied countries. And, as Germany and Austria are the guilty ones, they should replace the losses caused by the war; they should rebuild areas, in short, they should bring Europe back to the pre-war conditions.
Even at the First Congress of the Amsterdam International in one of the resolutions was pointed out the justification of the reparations and the necessity of paying them. That the Germans have to pay, is stated in almost every resolution which was ever adopted by the Amsterdamers. They meet at Amsterdam in order to create an International, and decide: The Germans have to pay; and in London, again: The Germans have to pay; and in Rome, again—the same thing. No matter how many times their Bureau met, every time when they approached the question of the conflict between France and Germany, this problem which keeps Europe on a volcano, they always come to the conclusion that "Recognizing the necessity by Germany to cover the losses, nevertheless, excessive force should not be used, the problem should be turned over to the League of Nations." etc., etc.
Thus, in the question of reparations, the Amsterdam International took a purely Allied position, They forced upon the Germans not only a theoretical admission of the necessity of paying the reparations, but also demanded practical steps of pressure upon their Government in order to bring about the regular payment of the required sums. It is known that even up till now the question of reparations is not settled. The covering of all losses would mean the payment by the Germans of hundreds of milliards in gold, which is more than the financial and economic resources can permit.
To illustrate what these sums mean I will give one example. One German economist took the expenditures of the war for Germany alone and calculated how much would be required in order to turn Germany into a flowering garden in the sense that the next generation would have to work only four hours; and he came to the conclusion that if Germany would spend only half of the money which it spent on the war, for peaceful construction she would be able to make not only Germany but all Central Europe a garden.
At the time of signing the Versailles Treaty they were talking about 400 billion marks in gold. But this figure was so fantastic that they had to reduce it gradually until, in May 1921, it was brought down to
