If there is any approximate truth in Mr.Hoover's calculation that the coal output of Europe has fallen by one-third, a situation confronts us where distribution must be effected with even-handed impartiality in accordance with need, and no incentive can be neglected towards increased production and economical methods of transport.

The establishment by the Supreme Council of the Allies in August, 1919, of a European Coal Commission, consisting of delegates from Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Czecho-Slovakia was a wise measure which, properly employed and extended, may prove of great assistance.

But I reserve constructive proposals for Chapter VII.
Here I am only concerned with tracing the consequences, _per impossibile_, of carrying out the Treaty _au pied de lettre_.[52] (2) The provisions relating to iron-ore require less detailed attention, though their effects are destructive.

They require less attention, because they are in large measure inevitable.

Almost exactly 75 per cent of the iron-ore raised in Germany in 1913 came from Alsace-Lorraine.[53] In this the chief importance of the stolen provinces lay.
There is no question but that Germany must lose these ore-fields.