‘France now owes you war indemnities which you cannot collect. By putting them down against the obligations owed by you to France, you cancel this debt. However, we Germans have lent you during the war great sums, and furnished you with supplies without which you could never have continued the struggle. Since you cannot meet these obligations we shall secure ourselves, in part at least, by assuming France’s position as your creditor.’ On the whole, if the present state of things were to continue, Berlin, by the process of transferring credit, would be able to cause France the very considerable loss of about 15 billion francs owed her by Russia, and 6 billions owed by Germany’s vassal states—a total of at least 21 billions. Now that the Pan-German scheme has for the moment been accomplished, we can truthfully say that 21 billions of French money, at the lowest estimate, represented by Russia, Austrian, Hungarian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Turkish securities, have been virtually Pan-Germanized. CHAPTER III THE NECESSITY FOR A DECISION In the preceding chapters I have pointed out that the advantages which Germany has already gained through the war, or has assured for herself in the future, if the present situation remains essentially unchanged, consist of seven chief elements. Before we arrive at final conclusions concerning these elements, let us establish the following facts:— 1. In three years of war, Germany has spent on the war 1612 francs per capita of her population. France, in the same period, has spent 2200 francs per capita—that is to say, 608 francs, or the immense figure of 38 per cent, more than Germany. If the formula ‘without indemnity’ be adopted, with respect to the expenses of the war, far indeed from serving the cause of the Right, it would result in this unspeakable iniquity: each Frenchman who desired peace would have to bear a financial burden heavier by more than a third than that of each German and loyal subject of the Kaiser who loosed the dogs of war. Therefore this enormous difference—38 per cent—in the per capita war-expenses between France and Germany would in itself suffice to make the economic—and hence the political—downfall of France, swift, complete, inevitable, and beyond recall. 2. Unquestionably Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, _as separate states_, have been ruined by their war-expenses, but this ruin is all to the advantage of Germany, as it throws her vassals into a condition of absolute financial dependence. As a result, if Pan-Germany is to continue to exist, the Berlin government must be the unchallenged controller of all the financial combinations on which the peace and well-being of Pan-Germany depend. Now these combinations evidently can serve only to strengthen the German hegemony.