France and Great Britain are represented; and on the Elbe for some
undiscoverable reason there are also representatives of Italy and
Belgium.

Thus the great waterways of Germany are handed over to foreign bodies
with the widest powers; and much of the local and domestic business of
Hamburg, Magdeburg, Dresden, Stettin, Frankfurt, Breslan, and Ulm will
be subject to a foreign jurisdiction. It is almost as though the Powers
of Continental Europe were to be placed in a majority on the Thames
Conservancy or the Port of London.

Certain minor provisions follow lines which in our survey of the Treaty
are now familiar. Under Annex III. of the Reparation Chapter Germany is
to cede up to 20 per cent of her inland navigation tonnage. Over and
above this she must cede such proportion of her river craft upon the
Elbe, the Oder, the Niemen, and the Danube as an American arbitrator may
determine, "due regard being had to the legitimate needs of the parties
concerned, and particularly to the shipping traffic during the five
years preceding the war," the craft so ceded to be selected from those
most recently built.[72] The same course is to be followed with German
vessels and tugs on the Rhine and with German property in the port of
Rotterdam.[73] Where the Rhine flows between France and Germany, France
is to have all the rights of utilizing the water for irrigation or for
power and Germany is to have none;[74] and all the bridges are to be
French property as to their whole length.[75] Finally the administration
of the purely German Rhine port of Kehl lying on the eastern bank of the
river is to be united to that of Strassburg for seven years and managed
by a Frenchman to be nominated by the new Rhine Commission.

Thus the Economic Clauses of the Treaty are comprehensive, and little