nfluence is eliminated and her capital
confiscated in all those neighboring countries to which she might
naturally look for her future livelihood, and for an outlet for her
energy, enterprise, and technical skill.

The execution of this program in detail will throw on the Reparation
Commission a peculiar task, as it will become possessor of a great
number of rights and interests over a vast territory owing dubious
obedience, disordered by war, disruption, and Bolshevism. The division
of the spoils between the victors will also provide employment for a
powerful office, whose doorsteps the greedy adventurers and jealous
concession-hunters of twenty or thirty nations will crowd and defile.

Lest the Reparation Commission fail by ignorance to exercise its rights
to the full, it is further provided that the German Government shall
communicate to it within six months of the Treaty's coming into force a
list of all the rights and interests in question, "whether already
granted, contingent or not yet exercised," and any which are not so
communicated within this period will automatically lapse in favor of the
Allied Governments.[27] How far an edict of this character can be made
binding on a German national, whose person and property lie outside the
jurisdiction of his own Government, is an unsettled question; but all
the countries specified in the above list are open to pressure by the
Allied authorities, whether by the imposition of an appropriate Treaty
clause or otherwise.

(_c_) There remains a third provision more sweeping than either of the
above, neither of which affects German interests in _neutral_
countries. The Reparation Commission is empowered up to May 1, 1921, to
demand payment up to $5,000,000,000 _in such manner as they may fix_,
"whether in gold, commodities, ships, securities or otherwise."[28] This
provision has the effect of intrusting to the Reparation Commission for
the period in question dictatorial powers over all German property of
every description whatever. They can, under this Article, point to any
specific business, enterprise, or property, whether within or outside
Germany, and demand its surrender; and their authority would appear to
extend not only to property existing at the date of the Peace, but also
to any which may be created or acquired at any time in the course of the
next eighteen months. For example, they could pick out--as presumably
they will as soon as they are established--the fin