Now, in the Spring of 1918, we are about to receive the impact of a new peace drive from Germany. But what may we expect Germany to propose? The most liberal terms that have been suggested are a return to the _status quo ante_, peace without indemnities or annexations. But remember that Germany has collected her indemnities as she has gone along. She took four hundred and eighty million francs from Brabant alone in one seizure; she has been taking sixty million francs a month, 720 million francs a year from Belgium since she violated her frontiers. She has looted every safe, national, civic or in private dwellings, she has taken the locomotives and the rolling stock from all railroads, the ploughs, harrows and live stock from all farms, the machinery from all factories, she has taken the art treasures from all museums, churches, palaces and homes; she has taken the mercury from the backs of mirrors, the wool from the mattresses, the linen from the shelves, she has taken name-plates, door knobs, knockers, curtain rods, carpet rods, kitchen utensils and the bells from the churches. She has drawn her net so fine that she has taken the francs and centimes from her prisoners and she has picked the pockets of the dead! Advertisements appear in the Berlin papers wherein contractors offer to transport the loot from any conquered territory on most reasonable terms, while at number 35 Schoenberger Strasse there is a great warehouse where you might buy linens, laces, furniture, statuary, bric-a-brac, cradles, anything you like for almost anything you care to offer, for official Germany is selling the loot and plunder she has gathered in in violation of those Hague Regulations which Germany signed and swore to observe; "Family honor and rights, individual life and private property as well as religious convictions and worship must be respected." Article 46. "Pillage is expressly forbidden," Article 47. Austria staggers beneath her load of debt; Bulgaria and Turkey are hopelessly impoverished, England and France march on towards bankruptcy, Germany also is drawing very near financial ruin, but even at that she has gathered in such a harvest of wealth as no war has ever brought to any people, and now she asks for a "peace without indemnities"! And she wants "Peace without annexations." Belgium has been stripped to the bone. Her recovery will require centuries. Never again will Belgium be able to block Germany's pathway, never again shall there be an epic of Liège. So Germany will give back Belgium.