HC Deb 17 December 1925 vol 189 cc1691-2W
Mr. SHORT

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total cost of the Army of Occupation, and the total payments received from Germany relative thereto?

Mr. CHURCHILL

The total cost of the Armies of Occupation in the Rhine-land since the Armistice is approximately 4,713 million gold marks, and the total receipts relative thereto (including German currency supplied to the Armies by the German Government) approximately 3,384 million gold marks, made up as follows:

Cost. Receipts
(in millions of gold marks).
France 1,990 1,782
United States 1,226 238
British Empire 1,150 1,017
Belgium 337 337
Italy 10 10
4,713 3,384

The great bulk of the cost was incurred during the first two years after the Armistice; and the costs were limited, as from 1st May, 1922, by the Inter-Allied Agreement of 11th March, 1922, and, as from the 1st September, 1924 (when the Dawes Plan was introduced) by the Paris Agreement of the 14th January last (Command Paper 2,339).

This latter Agreement also provided special allocations out of future Dawes Annuities for the gradual liquidation of the balances due to the United States (Article 3 (A) (1)) and to France and Great Britain (Article 21).