Page:The Destruction of Poland - Toynbee - 1916.djvu/20

 have been requisitioned in the factories of Lodz to a value considerably exceeding £5,000,000, while goods to the value of £1,500,000 haye been similarly commandeered at Tchenstochova, without compensation being paid for any but a small proportion of the material carried away.

These stores are handed over at low prices by the German Government to the manufacturers in Germany. On the question of payment for requisitioned raw materials, the German authorities (Reichsentschädigungskommission) have decided that it will be a matter of grace on the part of the German Government if it makes payment for requisitions im Feindeslande (in the country of the enemy). That grace is to assume the following form. The goods will be valued according to the' prices which existed before the outbreak of the war—^namely, on July 24th, 1914. (The difference in the prices of cotton in Bremen is as follows: In July, 1914, 2 lb. of cotton cost 7d. to 7½d.; in July, 1915, 1s. 3d.) Moreover, the import duties originally paid on cotton will not be taken into account. From the sum appropriated for this purpose the German Government will pay, first of all, the claims of Germain manufacturers against their debtors among the manufacturers of Lodz, while the residuum will be paid out to the latter three months after the conclusion of peace.

Having thus settled the question, the Germans are unable to understand why the manufacturers of Lodz, almost all of whom are Germans, have no sympathy with the new rulers of the town, notwithstanding their national kinship,