The Note brings us back to the facts and to the
proper starting-point for negotiations.
In this question of Reparations the position changes so fast that it may
be worth while for me to remind you just how the question stands at this
moment. There are in existence two inconsistent settlements, both of
which still hold good in law. The first is the assessment of the
Reparation Commission, namely, 132 milliard gold marks. This is a
capital sum. The second is the London Settlement, which is not a capital
sum at all, but a schedule of annual payments calculated according to a
formula; but the capitalised value of these annual payments, worked out
on any reasonable hypothesis, comes to much less than the Reparation
Commission's total, probably to not much more than a half.
THE BREAKDOWN OF GERMANY
But that is not the end of the story. While both the above settlements
remain in force, the temporary regime under which Germany has been
paying is different from, and much less than, either of them.
Pages:
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