compared with
Belgium (whose neutrality Germany had guaranteed) and Great Britain (the
chief sufferer from illicit acts of submarines).

In any case the appeals to sentiment and fairness outlined above are
hollow; for it makes no difference to the recipient of a separation
allowance or a pension whether the State which pays them receives
compensation on this or on another head, and a recovery by the State out
of indemnity receipts is just as much in relief of the general taxpayer
as a contribution towards the general costs of the war would have been.
But the main consideration is that it was too late to consider whether
the pre-Armistice conditions were perfectly judicious and logical or to
amend them; the only question at issue was whether these conditions were
not in fact limited to such classes of direct damage to civilians and
their property as are set forth in Paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 of
Annex I. If words have any meaning, or engagements any force, we had no
more right to claim for those war expenses of the State, which arose out
of Pensions and Separation Allowances, than for any other of the general
costs of the war. And who is prepared to argue in detail that we were
entitled to demand the latter?

What had really happened was a compromise between the Prime Minister's
pledge to the British electorate to claim the entire costs of the war
and the pledge to the contrary which the Allies had given to Germany at
the Armistice. The Prime Minister could claim that although he had not
secured the entire costs of the war, he had nevertheless secured an
important contribution towards them, that he had always qualified his
promises by the limiting condition of Germany's capacity to pay, and
that the bill as now presented more than exhausted this capacity as
estimated by the more sober authorities. The President, on the other
hand, had secured a formula, which was not too obvious a breach of
faith, and had avoided a quarrel with his Associates on an issue where
the appeals to sentiment and passion would all have been against him, in
the event of its being made a matter of open popular controversy. In
view of the Prime Minister's election pledges, the President could
hardly hope to get him to abandon them in their entirety without a
struggle in public; and the cry of pensions would have had an
overwhelming popular appeal in all countries. Once more the Prime
Minister had shown himself a political tactician of a hig