It may be noticed that the service of the A Bonds will cost $180,000,000 per annum, a sum well within Germany’s capacity, and the service of the B Bonds will cost $570,000,000 per annum, making $750,000,000 altogether, a sum in excess of my own expectations of what is practicable, but not in excess of the figure at which some independent experts, whose opinion deserves respect, have estimated Germany’s probable capacity to pay. It may also be noticed that the aggregate face value of the A and B Bonds ($12,500,000,000) corresponds to the figure at which the German Government have agreed (in their counter–proposal transmitted to the United States) that their aggregate liability might be assessed. It is probable that, sooner or later, the C Bonds at any rate will be not only postponed, but canceled. 2. _The Committee of Guarantees._—This new body, which is to have a permanent office in Berlin, is in form and status a sub–commission of the Reparation Commission. Its members consist of representatives of the Allies represented on the Reparation Commission, with a representative of the United States, if that country consents to nominate.[35] To it are assigned the various wide and indefinite powers accorded by the Treaty of Peace to the Reparation Commission, for the general control and supervision of Germany’s financial system. But its exact functions, in practice and in detail, are still obscure. According to the letter of its constitution the Committee might embark on difficult and dangerous functions. Accounts are to be opened in the name of the Committee, to which will be paid over in _gold or foreign currency_ the proceeds of the German Customs, 26 per cent of the value of all exports and the proceeds of any other taxes which may be assigned as a “guarantee” for the payment of Reparation. These receipts, however, chiefly accrue not in gold or foreign currency, but in paper marks. If the Committee attempts to regulate the conversion of these paper marks into foreign currencies, it will in effect become responsible for the foreign exchange policy of Germany, which it would be much more prudent to leave alone. If not, it is difficult to see what the “guarantees” really add to the other provisions by which Germany binds herself to make payments in foreign money.