27 DECEMBER 1919, Page 2

So it is as between the Allies and the Central

Powers. We passed sentence, and rightly so, but the course of events, which could not then be foreseen, makes it appear now that Germany and Austria cannot recover within a measurable time if they have to bear all the burdens placed upon them. If this be so, we should be blind and mad from our own point of view, to put it on no higher grounds, to go on insisting. We have won the war, and we should be just and generous even as we are strong. As Mr. Keynes has pointed out in his book, if Germany can pay only 150 millions a year till 1936, she will at that date (since her indebtedness is to bear compound interest) owe us 13,000 millions, and will have to pay 650 millions a year merely to discharge the interest on that sum I