CHAPTER II
How Much Germany Has Won in the War
Let us now take up, in their order, the seven elements mentioned in the last chapter.
I
The first element of German advantage: the booty acquired from the occupation of enemy territory
Germany is getting direct war-profits from the enemy territories occupied by her. These territories, listed in the ascending order of their richness, are: Montenegro, 14,000 square kilometres; Albania, 20,000; Serbia, 87,000; Roumania, 70,000 (Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary share the pillage of these four territories); dependent territories of Russia, 260,000; Belgium, 29,000; and France, 20,000; making a grand total of 500,000 square kilometres.
In order to realize as clearly as possible the importance of the booty wrung by Germany from this enormous area, we may establish by means of examples or statistics that this plunder comes from nine principal sources:—
Seizure of Human Material.—Throughout these 500,000 square kilometres of occupied territory, the Germans have scientifically enslaved 42,000,000 human beings, who furnish a vast amount of labor—this labor being all the cheaper because, as we shall see, the slaves are robbed in various ways.
Seizure of War-Material.—By reason of their lightning advances in Belgium, France, Serbia, and Roumania the Germans have taken possession of vast stores of war-material: cannon, rifles, munitions, wagons, locomotives, cars, as well as thousands of kilometres of railway, of which they make full use, representing a certain value of billions of francs. (The Belgian railway system alone is worth three billions.)
Seizure of Food-stuffs.—The official report of April 12, 1917, on the acts committed by the Germans in France contrary to international law, states: ‘The inhabitants, subjected as they were to annoyances of every sort, watched daily the theft of such food-stuffs as they happened to possess.’ Everywhere the Germans steal horses, cattle, domestic animals, grain, potatoes, food-products of all kinds, sugar, alcohol, all of which constitute the reserve supply of the occupied countries. Their harvests, too, are appropriated through the cultivation of productive lands by means of labor obtained almost without cost from the enslaved peoples.
Theft of Raw Materials.—Throughout the length and breadth of the occupied territories, the Germans, at the dictates of expediency, have seized raw materials: coal and iron ore, copper, petroleum, and so forth. Metals—bronze, zinc, lead, copper, tin—have been taken from private citizens, as well as textile fabrics—wool, cotton cloth, and the like. When one learns that from the cities of the North of France alone the Germans stole 550 million francs’ worth of wool, it is easy to see that this single source of plunder has been worth a number of billions to them.