[16] Arts. 121 and 297(b). The exercise or non-exercise of this
option of expropriation appears to lie, not with the Reparation
Commission, but with the particular Power in whose territory the
property has become situated by cession or mandation.

[17] Art. 297 (h) and para. 4 of Annex to Part X. Section IV.

[18] Arts. 53 and 74.

[19] In 1871 Germany granted France credit for the railways of
Alsace-Lorraine but not for State property. At that time, however, the
railways were private property. As they afterwards became the property
of the German Government, the French Government have held, in spite of
the large additional capital which Germany has sunk in them, that their
treatment must follow the precedent of State property generally.

[20] Arts. 55 and 255. This follows the precedent of 1871.

[21] Art. 297 (_b_).

[22] Part X. Sections III. and IV. and Art. 243.

[23] The interpretation of the words between inverted commas is
a little dubious. The phrase is so wide as to seem to include private
debts. But in the final draft of the Treaty private debts are not
explicitly referred to.

[24] This provision is mitigated in the case of German property
in Poland and the other new States, the proceeds of liquidation in these