The two blanket transactions with France--the bulk sale of buildings and supplies and the general settlement of claims--were of great value to the United States in relieving this nation of the responsibility of having to deal with individual French claimants. In taking over all the A. E. F. installations the French Government agreed to hold the United States harmless from all claims for property damage and restoration. In the general settlement the French Government assumed responsibility for all other claims of French nationals against the United States and agreed to settle with the claimants. If, however, the claims paid by France exceed 12,000,000 francs, America is bound to pay the excess up to 6,000,000 francs. Except for this arrangement, the American Government would have had to maintain in France for years an organization for dealing with French individuals’ claims. * * * * * We are now in position to see in close approximation the financial result to the United States of the international war business. On the credit side we have the Cuthell settlements, amounting to $48,716,080.99 in all--this figure, however, not including the Cuthell Board’s settlement with the French, the debt of France on her American war contracts being carried over into the general settlement effected by the United States Liquidation Commission. We have, as a further credit, the 6,000,000 francs which were the American share of the French payment in the liquidation of the Anglo-American heavy tank project. Finally, the general settlement of the Liquidation Commission with the French Government brought to the Treasury the further sum of $28,000,000. To all these credits must be added the $800,000,000 received from the sale of the A. E. F. property. The sum of all the American credits (counting ten francs as a dollar) is approximately $877,000,000. From this credit, however, we must subtract, first, £17,726,685 13s 13d as the American obligation embodied in the termination contracts made with the British Government by the Liquidation Commission, and £2,946,511 2s 8d as our debt to England under the Burr-Niemeyer Agreement. We must subtract also the $3,568,653.23 paid by the A. E. F. in cancellation charges to individual European contractors. A final subtraction is the 437,985,399.73 francs paid by the Liquidation Commission for port dues and for the transportation of the A. E. F. on French railroads. Translating pounds sterling and francs into dollars at average exchange rates, the total debit of the United States is found to have been about $120,000,000. The net balance, therefore, in favor of the United States as a result of the international war industrial transactions was the sum, approximately, of $757,000,000. CHAPTER XIX THE BALANCE SHEET