ested,
direct or control the educational or other systems of the country. Its
business is to ask what is to be paid; to satisfy itself that Germany
can pay; and to report to the Powers, whose delegation it is, in case
Germany makes default, If Germany raises the money required in her own
way, the Commission cannot order that it shall be raised in some other
way; if Germany offers payment in kind, the Commission may accept such
payment, but, except as specified in the Treaty itself, the Commission
cannot require such a payment."

This is not a candid statement of the scope and authority of the
Reparation Commission, as will be seen by a comparison of its terms with
the summary given above or with the Treaty itself. Is not, for example,
the statement that the Commission "has no forces at its command" a
little difficult to justify in view of Article 430 of the Treaty, which
runs:--"In case, either during the occupation or after the expiration of
the fifteen years referred to above, the Reparation Commission finds
that Germany refuses to observe the whole or part of her obligations
under the present Treaty with regard to Reparation, the whole or part of
the areas specified in Article 429 will be reoccupied immediately by the
Allied and Associated Powers"? The decision, as to whether Germany has
kept her engagements and whether it is possible for her to keep them, is
left, it should be observed, not to the League of Nations, but to the
Reparation Commission itself; and an adverse ruling on the part of the
Commission is to be followed "immediately" by the use of armed force.
Moreover, the depreciation of the powers of the Commission attempted in
the Allied reply largely proceeds from the assumption that it is quite
open to Germany to "raise the money required in her own way," in which
case it is true that many of the powers of the Reparation Commission
would not come into practical effect; whereas in truth one of the main
reasons for setting up the Commission at all is the expectation that
Germany will not be able to carry the burden nominally laid upon her.

* * * * *

It is reported that the people of Vienna, hearing that a section of the
Reparation Commission is about to visit them, have decided
characteristically to pin their hopes on it. A financial body can
obviously take nothing from them, for they have nothing; therefore this
body must be for the purpose of assisting and relieving them