Answer one question from one section only. Section C: International option The League of Nations and international relations in the 1920s 3 Read the sources and then answer both parts of the question. Source A In this single area of Northern France, which includes several large cities, 40 per cent of all property has been destroyed. In thirty-two districts here from 40 to 90 per cent of the houses have been shattered by cannon, and in fifty-nine not one building in ten is standing. In many towns, when the Germans left, there was no bedding or household utensils. There was nothing. Cities reduced to rubble, miles of soil poisoned by gas, planted with shells and barbed wire, blasted as by a volcanic eruption, this was the concern of governments. Above all, France felt, it was the responsibility of Germany. As a French soldier said on viewing the devastation, ‘After all, only the ruins are German; the soil is French!' The ruins are German, and it will pay. From an American Red Cross report by Ruth Gaines, February 1919. Ruth Gaines served in France as an aid worker from 1917 to 1919. Source B We came to Versailles expecting the peace of justice which had been promised. We were shocked when we read the demands, the victorious violence of our enemies. This Treaty is more than the German people can bear. The purely German district of the Saar must be detached from our Empire, and the way prepared for its annexation to France, although we owe debts in coal only, not in people. For fifteen years the Saar must be occupied, and after those fifteen years the Allies have power to refuse to return it. Meanwhile, the Allies can take every measure to cut the economic and moral links with the mother country and may finally attempt to misrepresent the wishes of the local population. Germany, thus cut in pieces and weakened, must declare itself ready to bear all the war expenses of its enemies, which would exceed many times over the total amount of German state and private assets. A letter from the leader of the German delegation (Brockdorff-Rantzau) to the President of the Peace Conference (Clemenceau) in Versailles, 29 May 1919. Source C The German delegation has seriously misinterpreted the economic and financial conditions. The Allied Powers do not intend to strangle Germany nor to prevent it from taking its proper place in international trade. These proposals limit German payments to what is clearly justifiable under the terms of armistice in respect of damage caused to Allied civilians by German aggression. In the Saar, the regime proposed by the Allied Powers is to continue for fifteen years. This arrangement is necessary both for reparations in general, and so France may have compensation for the deliberate destruction of its northern coal mines. At the end of fifteen years the mixed population, who in the meanwhile will have had control of local affairs under the governing supervision of the League of Nations, will have complete freedom to decide whether they wish for union with Germany, union with France, or to continue the regime established by the Treaty. A reply from Clemenceau to Brockdorff-Rantzau's letter (Source B), 16 June 1919. Source D Whole areas of Germany will be entirely deprived of their liberty. They will be under a committee of foreign domination, without adequate representation. The financial burden is so heavy that it is no exaggeration to say that Germany is reduced to economic slavery. The Germans will have to work hard for foreign masters, without any chance of personal gain, or any prospect of regaining liberty or economic independence. This peace is a mockery of President Wilson's principles. Trusting in these, Germany accepted peace. That confidence has been betrayed; the present happenings are a deep humiliation, not only to all governments and nations concerned in this peace offer, but to all humanity. Bound and enslaved, Germany will always remain a menace to Europe. From an editorial in a Dutch newspaper, June 1919. Answer both parts of the question with reference to the sources.