522     THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE, 1919, VOLUME V


The problem, therefore, was twofold (a) to devise means of pro-
viding money, and (b) to devise means for seeing that it was used
to set industry going. As far as he could see the position was getting
worse and not better. What he had said of Poland, which he had
taken merely as an instance, was generally true of Germany and other
countries in Europe and the problem must be treated as a whole.
Personally he regretted that there had not been a further relaxation
of the Blockade some time ago. The problem was largely psychologi-
cal and the continuance of the Blockade with a consequent feeling of
distrust all over Europe was a large part of the difficulty. In the
case of Belgium, for instance, it was clear that the provision of credit
in itself was not sufficient as credits had there been offered without
effecting a solution.
MR. LLoYD GEORGE asked whether prices did not constitute a large
part of the difficulty, i. e. the anticipation that prices would fall had
the effect of holding back orders.
LORD ROBERT CECIL agreed that this was a part of the difficulty but
he said it was clear that it was necessary for a serious attempt to be
made at once to see that raw materials were obtained by the countries
to which he referred. This was mainly a financial problem.
Blockade       2. In addition, however, Lord Robert Cecil desired
to make two following specific proposals with regard
to the Blockade:
(a) That semi-public communications should be at once entered into
with the border neutrals with a view to securing from them such
undertakings as would, if necessary, enable the Blockade to be re-
imposed even more effectively than before.
(b) That a public statement should at once be issued making clear
what modifications in the Blockade have already been made and con-
cluding with a statement that all the rest of the Blockade against
Germany would be removed the moment Peace was signed.
(It was agreed that the above action (a) and (b) should be taken,
it being understood that the removal of the Blockade would not apply
to Bolshevist Russia.)
3. LoRD ROBERT CECI, continuing, said that, personally, he had
no specific financial proposal to make and considered the problem was
one to which the experts should devote themselves at once. He wished,
Payment by    however, to refer to a special and important difficulty
Germany for  in the case of Germany. We had provided Germany
with the full amount of food she had paid for. In
addition we had large quantities afloat for which payment had not
been arranged. The Germans had always warned us that they could
not find sufficient money to pay for their rations up to the harvest,
and the attempts to help the situation by allowing exports had broken
down. A paper had been prepared by the Finance and Food Sections