804     THE PARTS PEACE CONFERENCE, 1919, VOLUME V
6. The German Note makes special complaint of the deprivation
of coal, and asserts that nearly one-third of the production of the exist-
ing German coal mines will be lost. But it omits to notice that one-
fourth of the pre-war consumption of German coal was in the
territories which it is now proposed to transfer. Further it fails to
take into account the production of Lignite, 80 million tons of which
were produced annually in Germany before the war, and none of which
is derived from the transferred territories. Neither is any reference
made to the fact that the output of coal in the non-transferred dis-
tricts was rapidly increasing before the war, and that there is no
reason to doubt that under proper management there will be a
continuing increase in the future.
7. But should not the coal situation be viewed from a different and
wider standpoint? It cannot be forgotten that among the most
wanton acts of devastation perpetrated by the German armies during
the war was the almost complete destruction by her of the coal sup-
plies of Northern France. An entire industry was obliterated with
a calculation and a savagery which it will take many years to repair.
The result has been a grave and prolonged shortage of coal in West-
ern Europe. There can be no reason in equity why the effect of this
shortage should be borne exclusively by the Allied nations who were
its victims, or why Germany who deliberately made herself respon-
sible for the deficiency should not to the full limit of her capacity
make it good.
8. Stress is also laid upon the hardships alleged to be inflicted
upon Germany by the necessity of importing in future iron ores and
zinc. It is not understood why Germany should be supposed to
suffer from conditions to which other countries contentedly submit.
It would appear to be a fundamental fallacy that the political control
of a country is essential in order to procure a reasonable share of its
products. Such a proposal finds no foundation in economic law or
in history.
9. The Allied Powers cannot accept the speculative estimate pre-
sented to them in the German Note of the future conditions of German
industry as a whole. This estimate appears to them to be charac-
terised and vitiated by palpable exaggerations. No note is taken of
the fact that the economic disaster produced by the war is widespread.
and, indeed, universal. Every country is called upon to suffer. There
is no reason why Germany, which was responsible for the war, should
not suffer also. She must for this reason realise that her economic,
in common with her political and military existence, must be con-
ducted henceforward on a reduced and lower plane. The German
note tabulates and aggravates every contemplated deprivation of
material, and endeavours to paint a picture of unrelieved gloom. But