In any case, this contention is disposed of by the Allied reply to the German observations on the first draft of the Treaty, where it is admitted that the terms of the Reparation Chapter must be governed by the President's Note of November 5.
Assuming then that the terms of this Note are binding, we are left to elucidate the precise force of the phrase--"all damage done to the civilian population of the Allies and to their property by the aggression of Germany by land, by sea, and from the air." Few sentences in history have given so much work to the sophists and the lawyers, as we shall see in the next section of this chapter, as this apparently simple and unambiguous statement.

Some have not scrupled to argue that it covers the entire cost of the war; for, they point out, the entire cost of the war has to be met by taxation, and such taxation is "damaging to the civilian population." They admit that the phrase is cumbrous, and that it would have been simpler to have said "all loss and expenditure of whatever description"; and they allow that the apparent emphasis of damage to the persons and property of _civilians_ is unfortunate; but errors of draftsmanship should not, in their opinion, shut off the Allies from the rights inherent in victors.
But there are not only the limitations of the phrase in its natural meaning and the emphasis on civilian damages as distinct from military expenditure generally; it must also be remembered that the context of the term is in elucidation of the meaning of the term "restoration" in the President's Fourteen Points.

The Fourteen Points provide for damage in invaded territory--Belgium, France, Roumania, Serbia, and Montenegro (Italy being unaccountably omitted)--but they do not cover losses at sea by submarine, bombardments from the sea (as at Scarborough), or damage done by air raids.

It was to repair these omissions, which involved losses to the life and property of civilians not really distinguishable in kind from those effected in occupied territory, that the Supreme Council of the Allies in Paris proposed to President Wilson their qualifications.

At that time--the last days of October, 1918--I do not believe that any responsible statesman had in mind the exaction from Germany of an indemnity for the general costs of the war.