The Treaty of Versailles specified the classes of damage in respect of which Germany was to pay reparation. It made no attempt to assess the amount of this damage. This duty was assigned to the Reparation Commission, who were instructed to notify their assessment to the German government on or before 1 May 1921.

An attempt was made during the Peace Conference to agree to a figure there and then for insertion in the Treaty. The American delegates in particular favoured this course. But an agreement could not be reached. There was no reasonable figure which was not seriously inadequate to popular expectations in France and the British Empire. The highest figure to which the Americans would agree, namely, 140 milliard gold marks, was, as we shall see below, not much above the eventual assessment of the Reparation Commission; the lowest figure to which France and Great Britain would agree, namely, 180 milliard gold marks, was, as it has turned out, much above the amount to which they were entitled even under their own categories of claim.

Between the date of the Treaty and the announcement of its decision by the Reparation Commission, there was much controversy as to what this amount should be. I propose to review some of the details of this problem, because, if men are in any way actuated by veracity in international affairs, a just opinion about it is still relevant to the reparation problem.