EFFECT OF DECISIONS

“The decisions just taken by the Supreme Council,” said M. Jaspar, the Belgian Foreign Minister, to me, upon his return from yesterday’s momentous meeting, “bear most emphatic testimony to the cohesion and solidarity that prevail among the Allies. In speaking for us all, your Prime Minister showed that, faced with an unjustifiable attitude on the part of the German Government, the Entente is firmly resolved to avail itself of all the rights conferred upon it by the Treaty, and to secure by all possible means, including the force at its disposal, reparation for the immense damage caused to the Allies by the war, for which Germany must bear full responsibility. Mr. Lloyd George, in recalling the devastations wrought systematically, and often, without any military purpose, by the German armies and the German administrations, in the occupied territories; in recalling, too – what affected us so deeply – the abominable deportations of those days, proved that mankind has not forgotten the horror and indignation inspired by those German methods. On the other hand, your Prime Minister pointed out, with equal righteousness, that, however great might be her victorious might, yet the Entente had not declined to examine any reasonable offer for reparation emanating from Germany. Your Prime Minister in this way dispelled the unfair and untrue allegation that the aim of the Entente was to enslave Germany and strangle her economic life.