With this end in view it is necessary that I should take up again, in the light of the fuller information now available, the statements which I made in _The Economic Consequences of the Peace_ (p. 120) to the effect that “the amount of the material damage done in the invaded districts has been the subject of enormous, if natural, exaggeration.” These statements have involved me in a charge, with which Frenchmen as eminent as M. Clemenceau[62] and M. Poincaré have associated themselves, that I was actuated not by the truth but by a supposed hostility to France in speaking thus of the allegations of M. Klotz and M. Loucheur and some other Frenchmen. But I still urge on France that her cause may be served by accuracy and the avoidance of overstatement; that the damage she has suffered is more likely to be made good if the amount is possible than if it is impossible; and that, the more moderate her claims are, the more likely she is to win the support of the world in securing priority for them. M. Brenier, in particular, has conducted a widespread propaganda with the object of creating prejudice against my statistics. Yet to add a large number of noughts at the end of an estimate is not really an indication of nobility of mind. Nor, in the long run, are those persons good advocates of France’s cause who bring her name into contempt and her sincerity into doubt by using figures wildly. We shall never get to work with the restoration of Europe unless we can bring not only experts, but the public, to consider coolly what material damage France has suffered and what material resources of reparation Germany commands. _The Times_, in a leading article which accompanied some articles by M. Brenier (December 4, 1920), wrote with an air of noble contempt—“Mr. Keynes treats their losses as matter for statistics.” But chaos and poverty will continue as long as we insist on treating statistics as an emotional barometer and as a convenient vehicle of sentiment. In the following examination of figures let us agree that we are employing them to measure facts and not as a literary expression of love or hate.