. CORRESPONDENCE.

"ACCOUNT RENDERED." [To THE EDITOR or THE " SPEC/11'0821

SIB,—It is to be doubted whether the full meaning of the words " Reparation and Restitution " is at all adequately grasped either in England or in Germany—their real significance in terms of time, labour, materials, and money. Let us consider, for instance, what they will mean and amount to in the case of a certain typical country village or small township that I have in mind, a once prosperous little place in the Somme country, with its Château and its local Industries, that is now represented by a wilderness of builders' rubbish, a few blasted and shattered trees, and a large notice-board giving the desolate cross-roads a name and a map reference. For it is merely the site of the village that was—a dozen acres cumbered with shapeless wrecks of masonry and twisted iron, and scarred and pitted with the mounds and craters of four years of periodic but ever heavier shelling. The surrounding roads and fields and farms have all been blasted and devastated more or less, but the villages have been ever the focus of " artillery activity," and are utterly laid waste with a ruthless thoroughness difficult to imagine. I will catalogue the chief buildings and amenities of the village as it existed in the summer of 1914, and against each item, given in round figures, the coat of replacement (so far as that is possible) at the end of the war :—

Debit.

The Church (utterly destroyed ; much clearing

and levelling of site will be necessary). New building of similar size, character, and quality, including furniture and fittings (the old one was Late Gothic) with Renaissance additions).. £35,000 The Chateau (Louis XIV. stone), including

farm buildings .. .. 45,000 The Mania and 15 supe Fa• Houses (some with

farm buildings attaohed, . 35,000 Hotel and four Shops .. 7,000 Sugar Factory (with machinery and plant) (probably) Brewery .. (about) About 80 Cottages • • (Bay) School Police Barracks ..

Convent ..

Railway Station and Goode Sheds, &o.

Five modern Villas.. .. .. (say) Flower Mill (water and steam) ..

Small Foundry .. , .

Remaking of Streets and Pavements .. Clearing, levelling, and restocking Gardens and Orchards (including Chateau) (say) Walls and Fences ..

Farm Implements and Gear destroyed .. Horses and Stock captured or destroyed Crops, Consumable Stores (including Mill, Brewery, and Sugar Factory) .. • • Furniture, Fittings, and Personal Effects (in- cluding Chateau).. .. • • • ; (say) Loss through (say) six years' evacuation—loss of trade—depreciation of farming land, &c., &o., 100,000 (say)

Reinstatement of water supplies, land drainage,

and replanting of roads and plantations 10,000 £460,000 Credit.

Brick and stone rubbish suitable for concrete, also scrap iron .. (say) £2,000 £404,000 50,000 20,000 50,000 5,000 2,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 5,000 4,000 1,500 10,000 3,000 4,500 4,000 10,000 35,000

•

Total And this is only an ordinary large country village or small town, of which there must be hundreds in like case.

The assessment, even within tens of millions of the total damage wrought, would take an army of expert surveyors and valuers several years to complete. Market towns, industrial centres, mines, canals, railways, and whole cities—half-a-century of ceaseless German industry can scarce suffice to make good destruction on so vast a scale, even if each able-b6died German is taxed and worked to the extreme limit of his or her endurance. As for the threat to lay Germany waste by way of reprisals, that would be a short- sighted and extravagant indulgence of a natural though not very worthy instinct. No ; we shall need all Germany's labour and materials and capital and resources generally for our reconstruction. The Germans shall be spared—that they and their children may pay for their homes by restoring us ours.—I am, Sir, &c., Stmvsvon,