───────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────── │ │ Cost per man │ Total cost. │ per day. ───────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────── United States │ $278,067,610 │ $4.50 Great Britain │ £52,881,298 │ 14s. France │ Frs. 2,304,850,470 │ Frs. 15.25 Belgium │ Frs. 378,731,390 │ Frs. 16.50 Italy │ Frs. 15,207,717 │ Frs. 22 ───────────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────── The conversion of these sums into gold marks raises the usual controversy as to the rates at which conversion is to be effected. The total was estimated, however, at three milliard gold marks,[80] of which one milliard was owed to the United States, one milliard to France, 900 millions to Great Britain, 175 millions to Belgium, and 5 millions to Italy. On May 1, 1921, France had about 70,000 soldiers on the Rhine, Great Britain about 18,000, and the United States a trifling number. The net result of the transitional period was, therefore, as follows: (1) Putting on one side State property transferred to Poland, the whole of the transferable wealth obtained from Germany in the two and a half years following the Armistice under all the rigors of the Treaty, designed as they were to extract every available liquid asset, just about covered the costs of collection, that is to say, the expenses of the Armies of Occupation, and left _nothing_ over for Reparation. (2) But as the United States has not yet been paid the milliard owing to her for her Army, the other Allies have received between them on balance a surplus of about one milliard. This surplus was not divided amongst them equally. Great Britain had received 450–500 million gold marks _less_ than her expenses, Belgium 300–350 million _more_ than her expenses, and France 1000–1200 millions _more_ than her expenses.[81]