A Concise Chronicle of Events of the Great War

by R. P. P. Rowe

Penalties

William II., of Hohenzollern, formerly German Emperor, to be tried by a special tribunal for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties. The tribunal to consist of five judges, one appointed by each of the following powers: the U.S.A., Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan.

The German Government recognises the right of the Allied Powers to bring before military tribunals persons accused of having committed acts in violation of the laws and customs of war and agrees to hand over such persons.

Part VIII

Reparation

'The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts on behalf of herself and her Allies, the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies.'

The Allied and Associated Governments recognise that the resources of Germany are insufficient to make complete reparation possible, but through the instrumentality of an Inter-Allied commission, to be called the Reparation Commission, her responsibility for the loss and damage caused by the war is to be assessed and gradually liquidated as far as possible.

As a first instalment Germany must pay to the Allies, in such form and by such instalments as the Reparation Commission may determine, the equivalent of 20,000,000,000 gold marks by the 1st May 1921, and as a second instalment the equivalent of 40,000,000,000 marks between 1921 and 1926. The question of further instalments is reserved.

The Reparation Commission shall have power to examine periodically Germany's system of taxation with a view to estimating her capacity to pay, and the sums for reparation shall become a charge upon all her revenues prior to that for the service or discharge of any domestic loan.