They consist of seven principal elements. The last six of these, it should be noted without fail, depend solely on the existence of central Pan-Germany—that is, on the hegemony exercised by Germany over Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey; they are therefore wholly independent of the first element, which relates to Germany’s occupation of enemy territories, particularly to the east and west. They may be summarized as follows:—
SEVEN ELEMENTS IN TWO GROUPS
The first group includes:—
The advantages derived directly from Germany’s aggression, comprised in a single element, namely, the plunder accruing from the occupation of enemy territory. This may be analyzed thus:—
(a) The value of the 500,000 square kilometres of Montenegrin, Serbian, Roumanian, Russian, Belgian, and French land held by the Germans.
This value, estimated according to the national fortunes of the respective countries before the war,—the area and population of the occupied portions being taken into consideration,—is in the neighborhood of 155 billion francs.
This figure, though naturally only approximate, is probably far below the real sum. We know that the entire national fortune of France, with its 536,000 square kilometres, was put before the war at 325 billion francs. The valuation of the 500,000 square kilometres of occupied territory at 155 billions seems therefore an underestimate, especially when one remembers that these 500,000 square kilometres include Belgium and the North of France—the richest districts in the world.
(b) The plunder of human beings, supplies, and property (laborers, war-material, provisions, minerals, raw products, manufactured products, personal property, art objects, war levies, specie, jewels, and securities) which has been going on, in some cases for as long as three years, throughout the occupied territories. This booty unquestionably represents a value of tens of billions of francs.
These tens of billions should be deducted from the total of the national fortunes of the invaded districts. The plunder in question is composed of property or supplies already used up by the Germans or taken away by them into Germany; the value it represents, therefore, no longer exists in the invaded districts.