Two days later Mr. Lloyd George read to the German Delegation a lecture on the guilt of their country, described their proposals as “an offense and an exasperation,” and alleged that their taxes were “ridiculously low compared with Great Britain’s.” He then delivered a formal declaration on behalf of the Allies that Germany was in default in respect of “the delivery for trial of the criminals who have offended against the laws of war, disarmament, and the payment in cash or kind of $5,000,000,000”; and concluded with an ultimatum[8] to the effect that unless he heard by Monday (March 7) “that Germany was either prepared to accept the Paris Decisions or to submit proposals which would be in other ways an equally satisfactory discharge of her obligations under the Treaty of Versailles (subject to the concessions made in the Paris proposals),” the Allies would proceed to (1) the occupation of Duisberg, Ruhrort, and Düsseldorf on the right bank of the Rhine, (2) a levy on all payments due to Germany on German goods sent to Allied countries, (3) the establishment of a line of Customs between the occupied area of Germany and the rest of Germany, and (4) the retention of the Customs paid on goods entering or leaving the occupied area. During the next few days negotiations proceeded, to no purpose, behind the scenes. At midnight on March 6, M. Loucheur and Lord D’Abernon offered the Germans the alternative of a fixed payment of $750,000,000 for 30 years and an export proportion of 30 per cent.[9] The formal Conference was resumed on March 7. “A crowd gathered outside Lancaster House in the morning and cheered Marshal Foch and Mr. Lloyd George. Shouts of ‘Make them pay, Lloyd George!’ were general. The German delegates were regarded with curiosity. General von Seeckt wore uniform with a sword. He wore also an eyeglass in the approved manner of the Prussian officer and bore himself as the incarnation of Prussian militarism. Marshal Foch, Field–Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and the other Allied soldiers also wore uniform.”[10]