Each of the Governments represented on the Commission shall have the right to withdraw after giving twelve months' notice to the Commission and confirming it six months after the date of the original notification.

3.

Such of the Allied and Associated Powers as may be interested shall have the right to name a Delegate to be present and act as assessor only while their respective claims and interests are under examination or discussion, but without the right to vote.

The Section to be established by the Commission under Article 179 shall include representatives of the following Powers: the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Roumania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and Czecho-Slovakia. This composition of the Section shall in no way prejudge the admissibility of any claim. In voting, the representatives of the United States of America, Great Britain, France and Italy shall each have two votes.

The representatives of the five remaining Powers mentioned above shall appoint a Delegate to represent them all, who shall sit upon. the Reparation Commission in the circumstances described in paragraph 2 of the present Annex. This delegate, who shall be appointed for one year, shall be chosen successively from the nationals of each of the said five Powers.

4.

In the case of death, resignation, or recall of any Delegate, Assistant Delegate or Assessor, a successor to him shall be nominated as soon as possible.

5.

The Commission shall have its principal permanent bureau in Paris, and shall hold its first meeting in Paris as soon as practicable after the coming into force of the present Treaty, and thereafter will meet in such place or places and at such time as may be deemed convenient and as may be necessary for the most expeditious discharge of its duties.

6.

At its first meeting the Commission shall elect from among the Delegates referred to above a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, who shall hold office for a year and shall be eligible for re-election. If a

vacancy in the chairmanship or vice-chairmanship should occur during the annual period, the Commission shall proceed to a new election for the remainder of the said period.

7.

The Commission is authorized to appoint all necessary officers, agents and employees who may be required for the execution of its functions, and to fix their remuneration; to constitute sections or Committees, whose members need not necessarily be members of the Commission, and to take all executive steps necessary for the purpose of discharging its duties; and to delegate authority and discretion to officers, agents, Sections and Committees.

8.

All the proceedings of the Commission shall be private, unless on particular occasions the Commission shall otherwise determine for special reasons.

9.

The Commission shall be required, if the Austrian Government so desire, to hear within a period which it will fix from time to time evidence and arguments on the part of Austria on any questions connected with her capacity to pay.

10.

The Commission shall consider the claims and give to the Austrian Government a just opportunity to be heard, but not to take any part whatever in the decisions of the Commission. The Commission shall afford a similar opportunity to the allies of Austria when it shall consider that their interests are in question.

11.

The Commission shall not be bound by any particular code or rules of law or by any particular rule of evidence or of procedure, but shall be guided by justice, equity and good faith. Its decisions must follow the same principles and rules in all cases where they are applicable. It will establish rules relating to methods of proof of claims. It may act on any trustworthy modes of computation.

12.

The Commission shall have all the powers conferred upon it and shall exercise all the functions assigned to it by the present Treaty. The Commission shall, in general, have wide latitude as to its control and handling of the whole reparation problem as dealt with in this Part, and shall have authority to interpret its provisions. Subject to the provisions of the present Treaty, the Commission is constituted by the several Allied and Associated Governments referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 above as the exclusive agency of the said Governments respectively for receiving, selling, holding and distributing the reparation payments to be made by Austria under this Part of the present Treaty. The Commission must comply with the following conditions and provisions:

(a) Whatever part of the full amount of the proved claims is not paid in gold or in ships, securities, commodities or otherwise, Austria shall be required, under such conditions as the Commission may determine, to cover by way of guarantee, by an equivalent issue of bonds, obligations or otherwise, in order to constitute an acknowledgment of the said part of the debt.

(b) In periodically estimating Austria's capacity to pay the Commission shall examine the Austrian system of taxation; first, to the end that the sums for reparation which Austria is required to pay shall become a charge upon all her revenues prior to that for the service or discharge of any domestic loan, and, secondly, so as to satisfy itself that in general the Austrian scheme of taxation is fully as heavy proportionately as that of any of the Powers represented on the Commission.

The Reparation Commission shall receive instructions to take account of:

(1) The actual economic and financial position of Austrian territory as delimited by the present Treaty; and

(2) The diminution of its resources and of its capacity for payment resulting from the clauses of the present Treaty.

As long as the position of Austria is not modified the Commission shall take account of these considerations in fixing the final amount of the obligations to be imposed on Austria, the payments by which these are to be discharged, and any postponement of payment of interest which may be asked for by Austria.

(c) The Commission shall, as provided in Article 181, take from Austria, by way of security for and acknowledgment of her debt, gold bearer bonds free of all taxes or charges of every description established or to be established by the Austrian Government or by any authorities subject to them. These bonds will be delivered at any time that may be judged expedient by the Commission, and in three portions, of which the respective amounts will be also fixed by the Commission, the crowns gold being payable in conformity with Article 214, Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the present Treaty:

(1) A first issue in bearer bonds payable not later than May 1, 1921, without interest. There shall be specially applied to the amortisation of these bonds the payments which Austria is pledged to make in conformity with Article 181, after deduction of the sums used for the reimbursement of the expenses of the armies of occupation and other payments for foodstuffs and raw materials. Such bonds as may not have been redeemed by May 1, 1921, shall then be exchanged for new bonds of the same type as those provided for below (paragraph 12, (c) 2).

(2) A second issue in bearer bonds bearing interest at 22 per cent. between 1921 and 1926, and thereafter at 5 per cent. with an additional 1 per cent. for amortisation beginning in 1926 on the whole amount of the issue.

(3) An undertaking in writing to issue, when, but not until, the Commission is satisfied that Austria can meet the interest and sinking fund obligations, a further instalment of bearer bonds bearing interest at 5 per cent., the time and mode of payment of principal and interest to be determined by the Commission.

The dates for the payment of interest, the manner of employing the amortisation fund and all other questions relating to the issue, management and regulation of the bond issue shall be determined by the Commission from time to time.

Further issues by way of acknowledgment and security may be required as the Commission subsequently determines from time to time. In case the Reparation Commission should proceed to fix definitely and no longer provisionally the sum of the common charges to be borne by Austria as a result of the claims of the Allied and Associated Powers, the Commission shall immediately annul all bonds which may have been issued in excess of this sum.

(d) In the event of bonds, obligations or other evidence of indebt

edness issued by Austria by way of security for or acknowledgment of her reparation debt being disposed of outright, not by way of pledge, to persons other than the several Governments in whose favour Austria's original reparation indebtedness was created, an amount of such reparation indebtedness shall be deemed to be extinguished corresponding to the nominal value of the bonds, etc., so disposed of outright, and the obligation of Austria in respect of such bonds shall be confined to her liabilities to the holders of the bonds, as expressed upon their face.

(e) The damage for repairing, reconstructing and rebuilding property situated in the invaded and devastated districts, including re-installation of furniture, machinery and other equipment, will be calculated according to the cost at the date when the work is done.

(f) Decisions of the Commission relating to the total or partial cancellation of the capital or interest of any of the verified debt of Austria must be accompanied by a statement of its reasons.

13.

As to voting the Commission will observe the following rules: When a decision of the Commission is taken, the votes of all the Delegates entitled to vote, or in the absence of any of them, of their assistant Delegates, shall be recorded. Abstention from voting is to be treated as a vote against the proposal under discussion. Assessors shall have no vote.

On the following questions unanimity is necessary:

(a) Questions involving the sovereignty of any of the Allied or Associated Powers or the cancellation of the whole or any part of the debt or obligations of Austria;

(b) Questions of determining the amount and conditions of bonds or other obligations to be issued by the Austrian Government and of fixing the time and manner for selling, negotiating or distributing such bonds;

(c) Any postponement, total or partial, beyond the end of 1930, of the payment of instalments falling due between May 1, 1921, and the end of 1926 inclusive.

(d) Any postponement, total or partial, of any instalments falling due after 1926 for a period exceeding three years.

(e) Questions of applying in any particular case a method of