nearly fifty years--a considerable majority of its population is German
speaking--and it has been the scene of some of Germany's most important
economic enterprises. Nevertheless, the property of those Germans who
reside there, or who have invested in its industries, is now entirely at
the disposal of the French Government without compensation, except in so
far as the German Government itself may choose to afford it. The French
Government is entitled to expropriate without compensation the personal
property of private German citizens and German companies resident or
situated within Alsace-Lorraine, the proceeds being credited in part
satisfaction of various French claims. The severity of this provision is
only mitigated to the extent that the French Government may expressly
permit German nationals to continue to reside, in which case the above
provision is not applicable. Government, State, and Municipal property,
on the other hand, is to be ceded to France without any credit being
given for it. This includes the railway system of the two provinces,
together with its rolling-stock.[19] But while the property is taken
over, liabilities contracted in respect of it in the form of public
debts of any kind remain the liability of Germany.[20] The provinces
also return to French sovereignty free and quit of their share of German
war or pre-war dead-weight debt; nor does Germany receive a credit on
this account in respect of Reparation.

(4) The expropriation of German private property is not limited,
however, to the ex-German colonies and Alsace-Lorraine. The treatment of
such property forms, indeed, a very significant and material section of
the Treaty, which has not received as much attention as it merits,
although it was the subject of exceptionally violent objection on the
part of the German delegates at Versailles. So far as I know, there is
no precedent in any peace treaty of recent history for the treatment of
private property set forth below, and the German representatives urged