ldhall at Cambridge. An earlier speech in which, in a
moment of injudicious candor, he had cast doubts on the possibility of
extracting from Germany the whole cost of the war had been the object of
serious suspicion, and he had therefore a reputation to regain. "We will
get out of her all you can squeeze out of a lemon and a bit more," the
penitent shouted, "I will squeeze her until you can hear the pips
squeak"; his policy was to take every bit of property belonging to
Germans in neutral and Allied countries, and all her gold and silver and
her jewels, and the contents of her picture-galleries and libraries, to
sell the proceeds for the Allies' benefit. "I would strip Germany," he
cried, "as she has stripped Belgium."

By December 11 the Prime Minister had capitulated. His Final Manifesto
of Six Points issued on that day to the electorate furnishes a
melancholy comparison with his program of three weeks earlier. I quote
it in full:

"1. Trial of the Kaiser.
2. Punishment of those responsible for atrocities.
3. Fullest Indemnities from Germany.
4. Britain for the British, socially and industrially.
5. Rehabilitation of those broken in the war.
6. A happier country for all."

Here is food for the cynic. To this concoction of greed and sentiment,
prejudice and deception, three weeks of the platform had reduced the
powerful governors of England, who but a little while before had spoken
not ignobly of Disarmament and a League of Nations and of a just and
lasting peace which should establish the foundations of a new Europe.

On the same evening the Prime Minister at Bristol withdrew in effect his
previous reservations and laid down four principles to govern his
Indemnity Policy, of which the chief were: First, we have an absolute
right to demand the whole cost of the war; second, we propose to demand
the whole cost of the war; and third, a Committee appointed by direction
of the Cabinet believe that it can be done.[100] Four days later he went
to the polls.

The Prime Minister never said that he himself believed that Germany
could pay the whole cost of the war. But the program became in the
mouths of his supporters on the hustings a great deal more than
concrete. The ordinary voter was led to believe that Germany could
certainly be made to pay the greater part, if not the whole cost of the
war. Those whose practical and selfish fears for the future the expenses
of the war had aroused, and