It is unfortunate that the word " indemnity " should
have been given so many meanings lately. What the Prime Minister is really demanding, and what we believe him to be right in demanding, is that Germany should make full reparation. Indemnity, however, is frequently used in the sense of a penal indemnity—such en indemnity 'as Germany extorted from France after the war of 1870. A penal indemnity has 'not of necessity any immoral aspects whatever, as itmay bees whole- some, for a criminal nation to be fined es it is for an indi- vidual Offender to be fined in the Courts. But a penal indemnity certainly does not seem to have been oontemplated in this case, and it does not now enter into the discussion. We suspect that ultimately the whole subject which we are debating may turn out to be " academia "—we must use the word. though Mr. Wilson has denounced it—as the actual military damage alone which Germany has done in the invaded territories seems to be aimest beyond computation. We hope that when Parliament meets, 'if not before, the Government will be ques- tioned about the wording of the Allies' reservations. No doubt on the matter ought to be allowed to exist.
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