Mr. Lloyd George in reply reminded M. Poincare that all
the Allies had suffered greatly and not France alone. He quoted an American estimate showing that the War had cost us 49,000,000,000 dollars—almost as much as it cost France and Italy together, though the estimate did not include the enormous damage done by the Germans in Northern France. Germany owed us for reparation alone £1,000,000,000. French provinces had been devastated, but our trade had been devas- tated too, and we had four or five million people affected by unemployment, whereas the total population of the wasted French provinces was only two millions. Mr. Lloyd George tried to convince M. Poi/ware that Germany had really been disarmed and was no longer formidable as a military Power. She had, he said, paid £500,000,000—a figure, we may note, which includes the alleged value of German State property In the ceded territories. The state of the exchanges, like a clinical thermometer in a case of fever, showed that Germany was in a bad way. The Prime Minister declared that he wanted to get as much as he could from Germany, but the methods adopted must be such as would yield practical results. It was then agreed that the proposals made by M. Poincare should be examined by a committee. It was announced on Thursday that the committee could not come to an agreement.
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