mối quan hệ của con số này với khả năng của Đức để trả sẽ được kiểm tra. Đó là chỉ cần thiết ở đây để nhắc nhở người đọc về một số cụ thể khác của các điều ước quốc tế mà nói cho mình: (1) Trong tổng số tiền yêu cầu bồi thường, bất cứ điều gì cuối cùng hóa ra là, một khoản tiền £ triệu phải được thanh toán trước ngày 01 Tháng Năm 1921. Khả năng này sẽ được thảo luận dưới đây. Nhưng hiệp ước. | THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE 92 restoration will never be attempted. Indeed it would be very wasteful to do so. Many of the townships were old and unhealthy and many of the hamlets miserable. To re-erect the same type of building in the same places would be foolish. As for the land the wise course may be in some cases to leave long strips of it to Nature for many years to come. An aggregate money sum should be computed as fairly representing the value of the material damage and France should be left to expend it in the manner she thinks wisest with a view to her economic enrichment as a whole. The first breeze of this controversy has already blown through France. A long and inconclusive debate occupied the Chamber during the spring of 1919 as to whether inhabitants of the devastated area receiving compensation should be compelled to expend it in restoring the identical property or whether they should be free to use it as they like. There was evidently a great deal to be said on both sides in the former case there would be much hardship and uncertainty for owners who could not many of them hope to recover the effective use of their property perhaps for years to come and yet would not be free to set themselves up elsewhere on the other hand if such persons were allowed to take their compensation and go elsewhere the countryside of northern France would never be put right. Nevertheless I believe that the wise course will be to allow great latitude and let economic motives take their own course. 13. La Richesse de la France devant la Guerre published in 1916. 14. Revue Bleue 3 February 1919. This is quoted in a very valuable selection of French estimates and expressions of opinion forming chapter iv of La Liquidation financière de la Guerre by H. Charriaut and R. Hacault. The general magnitude of my estimate is further confirmed by the extent of the repairs already effected as set forth in a speech delivered by M. Tardieu on 10 October 1919 in which he said .
