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Subject
to such exceptions as the Reparation Commission may approve, a first
charge upon all the assets and revenues of the German Empire and its
constituent States shall be the cost of reparation and all other
costs arising under the present Treaty or any treaties or agreements
supplementary thereto or under arrangements concluded between
Germany and the Allied and Associated Powers during the Armistice or
its extensions.
Up
to May 1, 1921, the German Government shall not export or dispose
of, and shall forbid the export or disposal of, gold without the
previous approval of the Allied and Associated Powers acting through
the Reparation Commission.
There
shall be paid by the German Government the total cost of all armies
of the Allied and Associated Governments in occupied German
territory from the date of the signature of the Armistice of
November 11, 1918, including the keep of men and beasts, lodging and
billeting, pay and allowances, salaries and wages, bedding, heating,
lighting, clothing, equipment, harness and saddlery, armament and
rolling-stock, air services, treatment of sick and wounded,
veterinary and remount services, transport service of all sorts
(such as by rail, sea or river, motor lorries), communications and
correspondence, and in general the cost of all administrative or
technical services the working of which is necessary for the
training of troops and for keeping their numbers up to strength and
preserving their military efficiency.
The
cost of such liabilities under the above heads so far as they relate
to purchases or requisitions by the Allied and Associated
Governments in the occupied territories shall be paid by the German
Government to the Allied and Associated Governments in marks at the
current or agreed rate of exchange. All other of the above costs
shall be paid in gold marks.
Germany
confirms the surrender of all material handed over to the Allied and
Associated Powers in accordance with the Armistice of November 11,
1918, and subsequent Armistice Agreements, and recognises the title
of the Allied and Associated Powers to such material.
There
shall be credited to the German Government, against the sums due
from it to the Allied and Associated Powers for reparation, the
value, as assessed by the Reparation Commission, referred to in
Article 233 of Part VIII (Reparation) of the present Treaty, of the
material handed over in accordance with Article VII of the Armistice
of November 11, 1918, or Article III of the Armistice Agreement of
January l6, 1919, as well as of any other material handed over in
accordance with the Armistice of November 11, 1918, and of
subsequent Armistice Agreements, for which, as having non-military
value, credit should in the judgment of the Reparation Commission be
allowed to the German Government.
Property
belonging to the Allied and Associated Governments or their
nationals restored or surrendered under the Armistice Agreements in
specie shall not be credited to the German Government.
The
priority of the charges established by Article 248 shall, subject to
the qualifications made below, be as follows:
(a)
The cost of the armies of occupation as defined under Article 249
during the Armistice and its extensions;
(b)
The cost of any armies of occupation as defined under Article 249
after the coming into force of the present Treaty;
(c)
The cost of reparation arising out of the present Treaty or any
treaties or conventions supplementary thereto;
(d)
The cost of all other obligations incumbent on Germany under the
Armistice Conventions or under this Treaty or any treaties or
conventions supplementary thereto.
The
payment for such supplies of food and raw material for Germany and
such other payments as may be judged by the Allied and Associated
Powers to be essential to enable Germany to meet her obligations in
respect of reparation will have priority to the extent and upon the
conditions which have been or may be determined by the Governments
of the said Powers.
The
right of each of the Allied and Associated Powers to dispose of
enemy assets and property within its jurisdiction at the date of the
coming into force of the present Treaty is not affected by the
foregoing provisions.
Nothing
in the foregoing provisions shall prejudice in any manner charges or
mortgages lawfully effected in favour of the Allied or Associated
Powers or their nationals respectively, before the date at which a
state of war existed between Germany and the Allied or Associated
Power concerned, by the German Empire or its constituent States, or
by German nationals, on assets in their ownership at that date.
The
Powers to which German territory is ceded shall, subject to the
qualifications made in Article 255, undertake to pay:
(1)
A portion of the debt of the German Empire as it stood on August 1,
1914, calculated on the basis of the ratio between the average for
the three financial years 1911, 1912, 1913, of such revenues of the
ceded territory, and the average for the same years of such revenues
of the whole German Empire as in the judgment of the Reparation
Commission are best calculated to represent the relative ability of
the respective territories to make payment;
A
portion of the debt as it stood on August 1, 1914, of the German
State to which the ceded territory belonged, to be determined in
accordance with the principle stated above.
Such
portions shall be determined by the Reparation Commission.
The
method of discharging the obligation, both in respect of capital and
of interest, so assumed shall be fixed by the Reparation Commission.
Such method may take the form, inter alia, of the assumption by the
Power to which the territory is ceded of Germany's liability for the
German debt held by her nationals. But in the event of the method
adopted involving any payments to the German Government, such
payments shall be transferred to the Reparation Commission on
account of the sums due for reparation so long as any balance in
respect of such sums remains unpaid.
(1)
As an exception to the above provision and inasmuch as in 1871
Germany refused to undertake any portion of the burden of the French
debt, France shall be, in respect of Alsace-Lorraine, exempt from
any payment under Article 254.
(2)
In the case of Poland that portion of the debt which, in the opinion
of the Reparation Commission, is attributable to the measures taken
by the German and Prussian Governments for the German colonisation
of Poland shall be excluded from the apportionment to be made under
Article 254.
(3)
In the case of all ceded territories other than Alsace-Lorraine,
that portion of the debt of the German Empire or German States
which, in the opinion of the Reparation Commission, represents
expenditure by the Governments of the German Empire or States upon
the Government properties referred to in Article 256 shall be
excluded from the apportionment to be made under Article 254.
Powers
to which German territory is ceded shall acquire all property and
possessions situated therein belonging to the German Empire or to
the German States, and the value of such acquisitions shall be fixed
by the Reparation Commission, and paid by the State acquiring the
territory to the Reparation Commission for the credit of the German
Government on account of the sums due for reparation.
For
the purposes of this Article the property and possessions of the
German Empire and States shall be deemed to include all the property
of the Crown, the Empire or the States, and the private property of
the former German Emperor and other Royal personages.
In
view of the terms on which Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany in
1871, France shall be exempt in respect thereof from making any
payment or credit under this Article for any property or possessions
of the German Empire or States situated therein.
Belgium
also shall be exempt from making any payment or any credit under
this Article for any property or possessions of the German Empire or
States situated in German territory ceded to Belgium under the
present Treaty.
In
the case of the former German territories, including colonies,
protectorates or dependencies, administered by a Mandatory under
Article 22 of Part I (League of Nations) of the present Treaty,
neither the territory nor the Mandatory Power shall be charged with
any portion of the debt of the German Empire or States.
All
property and possessions belonging to the German Empire or to the
German States situated in such territories shall be transferred with
the territories to the Mandatory Power in its capacity as such and
no payment shall be made nor any credit given to those Governments
in consideration of this transfer.
For
the purposes of this Article the property and possessions of the
German Empire and of the German States shall be deemed to include
all the property of the Crown, the Empire or the States and the
private property of the former German Emperor and other Royal
personages.
Germany
renounces all rights accorded to her or her nationals by treaties,
conventions or agreements, of whatsoever kind, to representation
upon or participation in the control or administration of
commissions, state banks, agencies or other financial or economic
organisations of an international character, exercising powers of
control or administration, and operating in any of the Allied or
Associated States, or in Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria or Turkey, or in
the dependencies of these States, or in the former Russian Empire.
(1)
Germany agrees to deliver within one month from the date of the
coming into force of the present Treaty, to such authority as the
Principal Allied and Associated Powers may designate, the sum in
gold which was to be deposited in the Reichsbank in the name of the
Council of the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt as security
for the first issue of Turkish Government currency notes.
(2)
Germany recognises her obligation to make annually for the period of
twelve years the payments in gold for which provision is made in the
German Treasury Bonds deposited by her from time to time in the name
of the Council of the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt as
security for the second and subsequent issues of Turkish Government
currency notes.
(3)
Germany undertakes to deliver, within one month from the coming into
force of the present Treaty, to such authority as the Principal
Allied and Associated Powers may designate, the gold deposit
constituted in the Reichsbank or elsewhere, representing the residue
of the advance in gold agreed to on May 5, 1915, by the Council of
the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt to the Imperial
Ottoman Government.
(4)
Germany agrees to transfer to the Principal Allied and Associated
Powers any title that she may have to the sum in gold and silver
transmitted by her to the Turkish Ministry of Finance in November,
1918, in anticipation of the payment to be made in May, 1919, for
the service of the Turkish Internal Loan.
(5)
Germany undertakes to transfer to the Principal Allied and
Associated Powers, within a period of one month from the coming into
force of the present Treaty, any sums in gold transferred as pledge
or as collateral security to the German Government or its nationals
in connection with loans made by them to the Austro-Hungarian
Government.
(6)
Without prejudice to Article 292 of Part X (Economic Clauses) of the
present Treaty, Germany confirms the renunciation provided for in
Article XV of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, of any benefit
disclosed by the Treaties of Bucharest and of Brest-Litovsk and by
the treaties supplementary thereto.
Germany
undertakes to transfer, either to Roumania or to the Principal
Allied and Associated Powers as the case may be, all monetary
instruments, specie, securities and negotiable instruments, or
goods, which she has received under the aforesaid Treaties.
(7)
The sums of money and all securities, instruments and goods of
whatsoever nature, to be delivered, paid and transferred under the
provisions of this Article, shall be disposed of by the Principal
Allied and Associated Powers in a manner hereafter to be determined
by those Powers.
Without
prejudice to the renunciation of any rights by Germany on behalf of
herself or of her nationals in the other provisions of the present
Treaty, the Reparation Commission may within one year from the
coming into force of the present Treaty demand that the German
Government become possessed of any rights and interests of German
nationals in any public utility undertaking or in any concession
operating in Russia, China, Turkey, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria,
or in the possessions or dependencies of these States or in any
territory formerly belonging to Germany or her allies, to be ceded
by Germany or her allies to any Power or to be administered by a
Mandatory under the present Treaty, and may require that the German
Government transfer, within six months of the date of demand, all
such rights and interests and any similar rights and interests the
German Government may itself possess to the Reparation Commission.
Germany
shall be responsible for indemnifying her nationals so dispossessed,
and the Reparation Commission shall credit Germany, on account of
sums due for reparation, with such sums in respect of the value of
the transferred rights and interests as may be assessed by the
Reparation Commission, and the German Government shall, within six
months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, communicate
to the Reparation Commission all such rights and interests, whether
already granted, contingent or not yet exercised, and shall renounce
on behalf of itself and its nationals in favour of the Allied and
Associated Powers all such rights and interests which have not been
so communicated.
Germany
undertakes to transfer to the Allied and Associated Powers any
claims she may have to payment or repayment by the Governments of
Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria or Turkey, and, in particular, any claims
which may arise, now or hereafter, from the fulfilment of
undertakings made by Germany during the war to those Governments.
Any
monetary obligation due by Germany arising out of the present Treaty
and expressed in terms of gold marks shall be payable at the option
of the creditors in pounds sterling payable in London; gold dollars
of the United States of America payable in New York; gold francs
payable in Paris; or gold lire payable in Rome.
For
the purpose of this Article the gold coins mentioned above shall be
defined as being of the weight and fineness of gold as enacted by
law on January 1, 1914.
Germany
gives a guarantee to the Brazilian Government that all sums
representing the sale of coffee belonging to the State of Sao Paolo
in the ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp and Trieste, which were
deposited with the Bank of Bleichroder at Berlin, shall be
reimbursed together with interest at the rate or rates agreed upon.
Germany having prevented the transfer of the sums in question to the
State of Sao Paolo at the proper time, guarantees also that the
reimbursement shall be effected at the rate of exchange of the day
of the deposit.
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