THE REALISABLE RESOURCES OF THE GERMAN FORESTS. IO5 



worth standing, at the pre-war figure, about 200 million frs., and 

 more than three times as much now. 



IV. 



Is it possible to exploit this mass of wood of which I have 

 just given an idea ? Is it morally, that is to say, equitably, 

 possible, and is it materially possible? This it remains to me 

 to examine. 



The war has impoverished all our forests; it has ruined 

 many of them, and it has, alas, totally destroyed a too large 

 number in the zone of the operations. The enemy is respon- 

 sible for all this — for what was used for the waging of the war, 

 and for what was destroyed by him in a spirit of shameful 

 vandalism. It was he who brought about the war in order to 

 assure the domination of the universe by Germany : " Deutschland, 

 Deutschland iiber alles, iiber attes in der Welt." 



The ruin of houses, the destruction of furniture and implements 

 can be compensated in money ; forest produce can only be 

 replaced in kind. We shall not find in the open world-market 

 the wherewithal to replace what we have lost. Our forests will 

 not recover their old capacity of production within a century. 

 We must, therefore, make the enemy pay us in kind, that we 

 may be enabled to properly manage our impoverished forests on 

 the one hand, and on the other that we may reconstruct our 

 appliances and rebuild our houses. 



The exploitation of the wooded capital of the public German 

 forests will not be an act of vengeance, but of restitution and 

 reparation. It will be still less an act of spiteful hate, like that 

 which was done by the barbarous boche, the son of Huns and 

 Vandals, when he broke with hammers the sewing-machine of 

 the seamstress, and destroyed the trade of the weaver, when 

 he rendered useless the plough and the thrasher, when he sawed 

 down the fruit trees in the orchards. (Quod vidimus testamur.) 

 It will be an act of simple justice. Spoliaius ante omnia 

 restituendus says an old precept of law. We may in all con- 

 science accomplish an act of restitution, of reparation and of 

 justice in exploiting the public German forests. 



Can it be done materially? How many days' work will be 

 required ; over how many years must the work be spread ; is 

 the world's market capable of absorbing the 338 million 

 cub. metres which will be thrown upon it? 



