Mr. Lloyd George went on to point out the lowness of German taxation in comparison with that in Allied countries, and also the smallness of the German debt relJatively to population as compared with that of Great Britain. He declared that Germany's apparently gigantic debt had been reduced to an amount almost equal to her prewar liabilities by a process of depredating the currency. He affirmed that Germany's failure 10 bring her taxation up to the level of the taxes in Allied countries constituted an infringement of the Treaty of Versailles, and said that until she imposed at least equal taxation she would be unable to plead her inability to meet the Paris demands.
Continuing, the British Premier said that further reflexion had confirmed the Allies in their first impression that the counterproposals were simply provocative, and that it would be a sheer waste of time to devote sittings to their consideration. He was authorized to make a declaration on behalf of the Allies to the following effect Evasions of the Treaty.
The German Government had already defaulted in respect of some of the most important provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, viz., the delivery of war criminals for trial, disarmament, and the payment of 20,000 million gold marks in cash or kind. The Allies had not insisted on the letter of their bond, and had extended the time. and even modified the character of their demands each time the German Government failed them.
Yet, despite the treaty and the undertaking given at Spa, the war criminals had not yet been tried, let alone punished, although the evidence had been in the hands of the German Government for months past. Furthermore, military organizations, open and clandestine, had been allowed to spring up all over the country and these were equipped with arms that should have been surrendered.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.