The procedure was simple.
In the first phase the indemnities came into being from three words
inserted almost by chance into the armistice treaty on November 2,
1918, _reparation des dommages_. It was merely a matter of a simple
expression to content public feeling: _Je supplie le conseil de se
mettre dans l'esprit de la population francaise_.... It was a moral
concession, a moral satisfaction.
But afterwards, as things went on, all was altered when it came to
preparing the treaties.
For a while the idea, not only of a reparation of damages, but of the
payment of the cost of the War was entertained. It was maintained that
the practice of making the vanquished reimburse the cost of the War
was permitted by international law. Since Germany had provoked the War
and lost it, she must not only furnish an indemnity for the losses,
but also pay the cost.
The cost was calculated roughly at seven hundred milliards of francs
at par. Further, there was the damage to assess. In the aggregate, war
costs, damage to property, damage to persons, came to at least one
thousand milliards.
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