The commission shall concurrently draw up a schedule of payments prescribing the time and manner for securing and discharging the entire obligation within a period of thirty years from the 1st May, 1921. If, however, within the period mentioned, Germany fails to discharge her obligations, any balance remaining unpaid may, within the discretion of the commission, be postponed for settlement in subsequent years, or may be handled otherwise in such manner as the Allied and Associated Governments, acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in this part of the present treaty, shall determine.
ARTICLE 234.—The Reparation Commission shall after the 1st May, 1921, from time to time, consider the resources and capacity of Germany and, after giving her representatives a just opportunity to be heard, shall have discretion to extend the date and to modify the form of payments, such as are to be provided for in accordance with Article 233; but not to cancel any part, except with the specific authority of the several Governments represented upon the commission.
ARTICLE 235.—In order to enable the Allied and Associated Powers to proceed at once to the restoration of their industrial and economic life, pending the full determination of their claims, Germany shall pay in such installments and in such manner (whether in gold, commodities, ships, securities, or otherwise) as the Reparation Commission may fix, during 1919, 1920, and the first four months of 1921, the equivalent of 20,000,000,000 gold marks.
Out of this sum the expenses of the armies of occupation subsequent to the armistice of the 11th November, 1918, shall first be met, and such supplies of food and raw materials as may be judged by the Governments of the principal Allied and Associated Powers to be essential to enable Germany to meet her obligations for reparation may also, with the approval of the said Governments, be paid for out of the above sum. The balance shall be reckoned toward liquidation of the amounts due for reparation.
Germany shall further deposit bonds as prescribed in Paragraph 12 (c) of Annex II. hereto.
ARTICLE 236.—Germany further agrees to the direct application of her economic resources to reparation as specified in Annexes III., IV., V., and VI., relating respectively to merchant shipping, to physical restoration, and to coal and derivatives of coal, and to dyestuffs and other chemical products; provided always that the value of the property transferred and any services rendered by her under these annexes, assessed in the manner herein prescribed, shall be credited to her toward liquidation of her obligations under the above articles.
ARTICLE 237.—The successive installments, including the above sum, paid over by Germany in satisfaction of the above claims, will be divided by the Allied and Associated Governments in proportions which have been determined upon by them in advance on a basis of general equity and of the rights of each.
For the purposes of this division the value of property transferred and services rendered under Article 243 and under Annexes III., IV., VI., and VII. shall be reckoned in the same manner as cash payments effected in that year.
ARTICLE 238.—In addition to the payments mentioned above, Germany shall effect, in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Reparation Commission, restitution in cash of cash taken away, seized, or sequestrated, and also restitution of animals, objects of every nature, and securities taken away, seized, or sequestrated, in the cases in which it proves possible to identify them in territory belonging to Germany or her allies.
Until this procedure is laid down restitution will continue in accordance with the provisions of the armistice of 11th November, 1918, and its renewals and the protocols thereto.