The Allies in their -detailed reply to the German proposals
-made it clear that Germany, " who was to blame.for the colossal growth of armaments," .must begin to reduce her forces, as the Allies hope to do hereafter. Que messieurs les assassins cow mencent I The reduction of the German Army might, however, be effected more slowly ; it should be reduced to two hundred thousand men within three months, and to the stipulated maximum of one hundred thousand men by March, 1920. The German offer of a lump sum, without interest and payable by undefined instalments from 1927, was wholly inadequate. A German Reparation Commission could co-operate with the Allied Commission. The pre-war German Debt would be divided between Germany and the ceded territories, except Alsace- Lorraine and the colonies. Free transit between Germany and the isolated province of East Pruasia would be guaranteed. The eastern part of Pomerania, though inhabited mainly -by Poles, was to remain German, so that the old frontier of 1772 might be undisturbed. The concession, though -unfortunate, testifies to the anxiety of the Allies to be scrupulously fair.
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