If the delegates had only to divide up the reparations
which will be obtained under the Dawes Scheme the matter would be simple enough. They would only have to distribute the amount—the annual £50,000,000—accord- ing to the Spa percentages. Great Britain would get about one-fifth of the total amount and France about one-half. But there is much more in it than that. There are the proceeds of the Ruhr occupation to be considered: Is the Ruhr transaction . to be reckoned in with all the ether financial items in spiteof the fact that Great Britani has always held that the Ruhr occupation was illegal ? In any case, the "prior charges " as the financial experts call them—the cost of the Armies which are in legal occupation of German territory, the service of the loan to Germany and other various items, have to be paid out of the German annuity. Before the Dawes Scheme was inaugurated such charges were never strictly estimated, and at Spa they were never even considered. They are all now swept together by the Dawes broom into a common heap with reparations. Clearly, there are plenty of difficult things to discuss. * • *
