Nevertheless, the United States did not seek to evade its just obligations under the French ordnance agreement. France had spent large sums of money in expanding the industry to take care of the expected American consumption, and the money so spent was a proper charge against the United States in any settlement. Immediately after the armistice Mr. Stettinius ordered production stopped on our orders; but this the French, for domestic, social, and economic reasons, were unable to do; and at first they were inclined to insist that we should accept and pay for a large quantity of artillery produced during a gradual termination of the industry. Mr. Stettinius successfully maintained the position that this post-armistice production was undertaken purely in pursuance of an internal policy of the French Government and that by no stretch of logic could it be entered as a proper war charge against the United States. Mr. Stettinius then went on to conduct the settlement negotiations, and these were about complete when the Liquidation Commission arrived to inherit the transaction and to draw the final settlement contract. As in the settlement of the British artillery contract, the American negotiators accepted guns and ammunition produced after the armistice by the French; and they did it in complete consistency with the position and policy defined in the preceding paragraph. The armistice found great numbers of French guns in process of manufacture for the A. E. F. The United States was obligated to accept and pay for this unfinished material. After the inventory of it had been taken, the Liquidation Commission suggested that in lieu of the unfinished parts the United States accept their value in full completions and that the production of all other guns be canceled without charge to the United States. This alternative, allowing, as it did, a measure of post-armistice production in the French mills, the French Government quickly accepted and, in carrying out the terms of the subsequent settlement contract, delivered to the United States 944 75-millimeter gun units, 700 155-millimeter howitzer units, and 198 155-millimeter gun units, all with limbers and with additional parts as spares. For these the United States paid 117,501,887.45 francs.