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Reparation Commission on December 26, 1922 (see p. 485). A default in coal deliveries was also found on January 9, 1923. Supported by those findings, France and Belgium, with Italy, sent engineers into the Ruhr with a view to controlling the economic output of the basin. French and Belgian troops on January 11 occupied Essen and other points while the Mission inter-allié de contrôle des usines et des mines (Inter-Allied Commission of Control of Works and Mines), a technical service of the reparation system, moved in to establish contact with the German industrialists and after April 17 to operate the coal mines (special ordinances Nos. 163, 166, 199, 211, ibid., 1923, pp. 327, 345, 685, 783). The German Government encouraged opposition to these measures and the popular movement against them resulted in an elaborate system of passive resistance in which the Ruhr population was vouchsafed many forms of assistance, including a German national forced loan in the course of the astronomic inflation of German currency. The United States Government in January withdrew its army of occupation from the Rhineland and its "unofficial observer" from the High Commission. The British Government took no part in the military occupation of the Ruhr area and did not participate in the collection or distribution of funds for reparation account which was its object.

The Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, augmented by an Italian delegate, was called upon to take an active part in the affair by the passage of ordinances necessitated by the conditions created by the extension of the occupation. Regular ordinances to deal with many phases of the situation were based on the general authority of the High Commission, but the extended series of "special" ordinances which gave character to the affair was issued "in pursuance of instructions received by certain of the High Commissioners". The High Commission had previously objected to, vetoed, or suspended the operation of German laws and decrees in the occupied territories very sparingly. In the course of the passive resistance hundreds of such items were held up; a large number of those objections were rescinded at the close of the period (see Official Gazette, April 1924 and onward).

The High Commission, having taken over several administrative functions and sequestrated specified types of property, by special ordinance No. 135, January 20, 1923 (ibid., p. 57), constituted five committees to insure the execution of its decisions. These were: Customs Managing Committee; Import and Export License Manag

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ing Committee; Forest Managing Committee; Special Coal and Mines Committee; Special Accounting Committee.

In addition to control over all trade across the bounds of the occupied territories, the High Commission undertook to seize material, goods, and property assignable to restitution or reparation under part VIII of the treaty of peace (special ordinances Nos. 153, 154, Mar. 15, 1923, ibid., pp. 183, 189). Germany attempted to frustrate that purpose by a decree of March 29, which was prevented from taking effect (ibid., p. 383).

Administration of the railways in all the occupied zones was taken over by a Belgo-French régie under ordinance No. 149, March 1, 1923 (ibid., p. 159) on account of German violation of article 212 of the treaty of peace in ordering the personnel to interrupt service and to obstruct its resumption. The lines were returned to the German Railway Company as organized under the Experts' (Dawes) Plan at midnight November 15, 1924 (ibid., 1924, p. 653), a final step in effecting the transition to that Plan which entailed revision of the functions of the Inter-Allied Rhineland Railway Commission (ibid., p. 667). On June 28, 1923 the High Commission established a Belgo-French Managing Committee for the Liquidation of Undelivered Goods on the Rhineland Railways, which took possession of all loaded cars and warehoused merchandise (ibid., 1923, p. 509). The committee was discontinued and provision made for settling outstanding claims by special ordinances Nos. 275 and 281, October 29, 1924 (ibid., 1924, pp. 575, 661). Disputes relating to the civil responsibility of the régie were heard by a Mixed Judicial Commission for the Rhineland Railways which was established at Mainz on February 11, 1924 under its own rules of procedure (ibid., 1924, pp. 69, 609 and 1925, parts 3-5, p. 20). It handled cases begun before February 16, 1925.

A German law regarding the forced loan of July 20, 1922 was amended on March 20, 1923 to obtain support for the passive resistance movement. The High Commission suspended its application by special ordinance No. 168, April 30, 1923, in view of the fact that the Reich was "employing all available means and in particular the resources derived from this loan to finance the resistance which it is offering to the Allies" (ibid., 1923, p. 361). The suspension was lifted by ordinance No. 273, October 16, 1924 (ibid., 1924, p. 557).

The circulation of the rentenmark, the currency uttered by Germany through a special bank of issue when the depreciation of the

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Reichsmark attained fantastic proportions, was allowed by the High Commission's decision of November 19, 1923 (ibid., 1923, p. 929). However, payment of taxes or rates in Belgian or French currency to the German revenue authorities was specifically prohibited by ordinance No. 242 of January 24, 1924 (ibid., 1924, p. 23); Luxembourg currency was included in the prohibition on March 28, 1924 (ibid., p. 145). Transactions in foreign currency were permitted from October 1, 1924 (ibid., p. 549).

Emergency currency (Notgeld) issued by local authorities, banks and other bodies, and even private persons made its appearance in September 1923. The High Commission on September 20 issued ordinance No. 212 regulating these issues, fixing areas of control and authorizing a Special Currency Committee, composed of Germans, to agree with the Financial Committee of the High Commission upon the bodies which should issue it (ibid., 1923, p. 789). The regulations were canceled September 3, 1924 (ibid., 1924, p. 505). In October 1924 the High Commission rescinded its objections to a long series of German laws and decrees relating to currency matters (ibid., pp. 623-40).

The Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, "in pursuance of instructions received by certain of the High Commissioners from their respective Governments as a result of the voluntary default on the part of Germany, established by the Reparation Commission", abrogated all special ordinances issued since No. 132 of January 13, 1923 by special ordinance No. 274 of October 20, 1924. At midnight October 27, 1924 all Allied services specially set up since January 11, 1923 for the working of the pledges were abolished and all mines, cokeries, and other industrial, agricultural, forest, and shipping undertakings exploited under their management or leased by occupying authorities were restored to the owners (Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, Official Gazette, 1924, p. 561). During the period the commission passed upon a great volume of German legislation, application of much of which it vetoed in the occupied territories. A settlement of the questions pending at the close of the period of occupation was effected by a "compromise" signed at Coblenz by Allied and German technical representatives on October 28, 1924 and in effect October 21 (ibid., p. 643).

"Considering that the agreements of Locarno should carry into the occupied territories an atmosphere of reconciliation" and that the regime "should be reviewed in a reciprocal spirit of confidence, good faith and good will," the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Com

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mission by its ordinance No. 308, Coblenz, November 17, 1925, introduced in a general revision "the alleviations compatible with the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland Agreement and the necessities of the occupation" (ibid., 1925, p. 23).

The Ruhr occupation led directly to the revision of the reparation obligations incumbent upon Germany. The Report of the First Committee of Experts rendered on April 9, 1924 was acceptable to all concerned and an alleviation of conditions in the Rhineland followed its publication. In the reparation system the interlude of the Ruhr period ran from January 11, 1923 until September 1, 1924, when Germany's payments under the annuities of the Experts' (Dawes) Plan began. The "Ruhr accounts" were passed by the Permanent Managing Committee of the Reparation Commission on November 12, 1925 in a report by Thomas Nelson Perkins, the "Delegation of the Citizen of the United States of America member of the Reparation Commission by virtue of the Inter-Allied Agreement of August 30, 1924". In addition to 86,966,715 gold marks accounted for as expenses, a total of 894,230,569.41 gold marks was obtained by the French, Belgian, and Italian Governments. Of this amount 469,868,656.41 gold marks was debited as deliveries in kind as follows: France, 312,901,159.37; Belgium, 93,993,140.49; Italy, 62,974,356.55. Cash receipts of 424,361,913 gold marks were eventually paid to Belgium under article 12 D and to the United States in conformity with article 3 B-1 of the Finance Ministers' Agreement of January 14, 1925. Of the amount 355,781,489.46 went to Belgium on account of its priority (with 109,000,000 transferred to France under mutual arrangements) and 6,766,213.26 for interest due on German treasury bills transferred to Belgium in 1922. The sum of 61,814,210.28 gold marks was "received by the Reparation Commission and transferred to the United States on account of the costs of its army of occupation" (Reparation Commission, annex 2624 D; file 462.00 R 294/489 and /497).

That closed account was derived from what was probably the most complicated translation of values ever attempted internationally. The "Ruhr accounts" were accumulated in the course of the phenomenal depreciation of the mark. Some conception of the uncertainty created by the depreciation of the mark can be had from noting the differences between takings in the occupied Ruhr from January to December 1923. French requisitions under article 6 of the Rhineland agreement during that period amounted to 6,345,198,100,031,383,747.80 paper marks credited at 17,936,542.39 gold marks. French

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seizures of paper marks during that period amounted to 2,419,697,899,923,924 paper marks, credited at 14,448,252.63 gold marks; but voluntary payments of 2,850,649,125,216,750,000 paper marks worked up to only 3,395,685.35 gold marks (ibid., annex 2624 A, annex IX). More remarkably, indemnities for damages in the occupied areas during December 1923 amounted to 1,851,507,512,900,542 paper marks, which was credited at 1,760.91 gold marks (statement No. IV, annex 2920 D 1, on file 462.00 R 294/608).

LIQUIDATION OF THE RUHR OCCUPATION

The London Reparation Conference on August 30, 1924 concluded the arrangements for bringing the Experts' (Dawes) Plan into operation. The agreement between the Allied Governments and Germany of that date (30 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 75) provided for the abolition of the Ruhr occupation. In addition to the steps incumbent upon Germany, the Plan was to be in execution when these conditions of article 1 were fulfilled:

"(B) The fiscal and economic unity of Germany will be considered to have been restored in accordance with the Experts' Plan when the Allied Governments have taken the following measures:

"(1) The removal and cessation of all vetoes imposed since January 11, 1923, on German fiscal and economic legislation; the re-establishment of the German authorities with the full powers which they exercised in the occupied territories before January 11, 1923, as regards the administration of customs and taxes, foreign commerce, woods and forests, railways (under the conditions specified in Article 5), and, in general, all other branches of economic and fiscal administration; the remaining administrations not mentioned above will operate in every respect in conformity with the Rhineland Agreement, the formalities regarding the admission or re-admission of German officials will be applied in such a manner that the re-establishment of the German authorities, in particular the customs administration, may take place with the least possible delay; all this without other restrictions than those stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland Agreement and the Experts' Plan.

"(2) The restoration to their owners of all mines, cokeries and other industrial, agricultural, forest and shipping undertakings exploited under Allied management or provisionally leased by the occupying authorities since January 11, 1923.

"(3) The withdrawal of the special organisations established to