2. A portion of the debt as it stood on the 1st August, 1914, of the German State to which the ceded territory belonged, to be determined in accordance with the principle stated above.

Such portions shall be determined by the Reparation Commission.

The method of discharging the obligation both in respect of capital and of interest, so assumed, shall be fixed by the Reparation Commission. Such method may take the form, inter alia, of the assumption by the power to which the territory is ceded of Germany's liability for the German debt held by her nationals. But in the event of the method adopted involving any payments to the German Government, such payments shall be transferred to the Reparation Commission on account of the sums due for reparation so long as any balance in respect of such sums remains unpaid.

ARTICLE 255.—

  1. As an exception to the above provision and inasmuch as in 1871 Germany refused to undertake any portion of the burden of the French debt, France shall be, in respect of Alsace-Lorraine, exempt from any payment under Article 254.
  2. In the case of Poland that portion of the debt which, in the opinion of the Reparation Commission is attributable to the measures taken by the German and Prussian Governments for the German colonization of Poland shall be excluded from the apportionment to be made under Article 254.
  3. Copyright Underwood & Underwood
  4. Dreadnoughts Welcoming President Wilson Home
  5. This photograph taken from the Fighting Top of the Pennsylvania, shows American Warships in the North River, firing a salute in honor of the President's return from France on the George Washington.
  6. [Click for a larger image.]
  7. In the case of all ceded territories other than Alsace-Lorraine that portion of the debt of the German Empire or German States which in the opinion of the Reparation Commission represents expenditure by the Governments of the German Empire or States upon the Government properties referred to in Article 256 shall be excluded from the apportionment to be made under Article 254.

ARTICLE 256.—Powers to which German territory is ceded shall acquire all property and possessions situated therein belonging to the German Empire or to the German States, and the value of such acquisitions shall be fixed by the Reparation Commission, and paid by the State acquiring the territory to the Reparation Commission for the credit of the German Government on account of the sums due for reparation.

For the purposes of this article the property and possessions of the German Empire and States shall be deemed to include all the property of the Crown, the Empire or the States, and the private property of the former German Emperor and other royal personages.

In view of the terms on which Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany in 1871—France shall be exempt in respect thereof from making any payment or credit under this article for any property or possessions of the German Empire or States situated therein. Belgium also shall be exempt from making any payment or any credit under this article for any property or possessions of the German Empire or States situated in German territory ceded to Belgium under the present treaty.

ARTICLE 257.—In the case of the former German territories, including colonies, protectorates, or dependencies, administered by a mandatory under Article 22 of Part I. (League of Nations) of the present treaty, neither the territory nor the mandatory power shall be charged with any portion of the debt of the German Empire or States.

All property and possessions belonging to the German Empire or to the German States situated in such territory shall be transferred with the territories to the Mandatory Power in its capacity as such, and no payment shall be made nor any credit given to those Governments in consideration of this transfer.