The Big 3 were aware that defiances were made against the treaty of Versailles and this was exactly why, as far as Lloyd George was concerned, the League Of Nations was created. In 1919 he said that the League of Nations would “be there as a court of appeal to readjust crudities, irregularities and injustices”
The American senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and so the US failed to join the League of Nations. As part of the treaty there were many territorial changes. The French at first demanded that the western frontier of Germany should be fixed on the River Rhine. The area on the left bank would go to France or become an independent buffer state. Although this idea was opposed by Wilson and Lloyd George as they believed it would always be a source of bitterness within the Germans. Instead the Rhineland was made into a demilitarised zone, and was occupied by allied troops for 15 years.
The 14 points had promised to create and independent Poland which would be given free and secure access to the sea. As there was no clear divisions between German and Polish speaking land it was difficult to determine what land this should be. Lloyd George was fearful of this territorial change embittering even more Germans. Germans were outraged by the loss of land to Poland, especially the Polish Corridor which separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
Also in the treaty the allies agreed that German military power should be severely reduced. Germany was to have no heavy artillery, tanks or aeroplanes and her army was limited to 100,000 men. She was to have no capital ships or submarines, which was one of Britain’s main priorities (no navy).
Article 231 of the treaty stated that Germany was to take the blame for starting the war. Due to this they had to pay reparations, the Americans wanted a reparation settlement based on German’s ability to pay, however the French and the British public wanted to “squeeze the German lemon till the pips squeaked.”
Lloyd George was unsure about the amount of reparations they should pay, although he was determined that Britain should get her fair share of the money and insisted that ‘damage’ should include merchant shipping losses and costs of pensions to those disabled, widowed or orphaned by the war. Like Wilson, Lloyd George thought that Germany should pay what she could afford, Germany was always a strong trading partner with Britain and so he didn’t want to see the country completely economically disabled. Overall the reparations issue was a major cause of division between the Big 3 (USA, Britain and France). In the end astronomical reparation figures were being suggested and so Lloyd Gorge suggested that a reparation commission should be set up, to determine the amount that should e paid. In 1921 this commission finally recommended a sum of £6.6 million.
Altogether from the treaty, Britain wanted, to regain its naval supremacy in Europe, expand its empire, block the spread of communism from Russia to Germany etc, decide on a reparations amount and hoped for peace and reconciliation between the powers. Also under the treaty of Versailles, a League of Nations was set up, to include all the major powers, although Germany and Russia were not allowed to enter.
In the 1920’s foreign relations were dominated by reparation and security. Britain was particularly worried about the fact that Germany was denied self-determination and the amount f reparations they had to pay.
23 conferences were held during 1920-1922, where British representatives argued with the French to relax some provisions of the treaty. This shows a main area where Britain did actually try to amend the treaty in German favour. French believed that any revision of the treaty would strengthen Germany and lead to her economic dominance in Europe once again. In 1920 and 1921 French troops occupied several German cities, when Germany violated reparations and disarmament clauses. Britain wanted to adopt policies that would appease Germany; they wished to reduce reparation payments and to promote Germany’s recovery, in the belief that this would help British trade. In 1923 Britain tried to resolve the reparations issue by proposing a cancellation of both reparations and the payment of war debts to the USA. The French were, unsurprisingly disgusted at these claims.
The British did suffer a lot from the losses during the First World War, ¾ million men were killed and 1 ½ million left wounded, because of this public opinion on Britain’s foreign policy was stressed. People believed that another conflict, like that of World War One could be avoided if the nations of Europe cut down on their armaments. This lead to Britain adopting ‘The 1o Year Rule’ which meant Britain would not have been a part of any war within the next 10 years. The First World War also caused immense damage to Britain’s economy; during the war Britain was less able to supply her pre-war export markets. As a result countries either produced their own goods or bought them elsewhere. Britain’s export markets in coal were also devastated. The number of unemployed people in Britain between the wars never fell below 1 million. A large slice of government revenue was devoted to paying off war debt to the USA.
The French were also owed a lot in reparations and when Germany didn’t pay a due amount; French troops occupied the German industrial region of the Ruhr. Germans decided to take action and adopted a policy op passive resistance, to which led to the German economy collapsing and hyper-inflation. The Germans therefore had no other choice but to end their policy of passive resistance in the Ruhr. In April 1924 a reparations committee proposed that payments should be reduced and phased over a longer period, cutting the annual and total amounts to be paid in reparations. This was known as the Dawes plan, and the British Prime Minister, Ramsey Mc Donald worked hard to secure French and German acceptance of the plan. Germany agreed to the new reparation payments. In return France agreed to withdraw her troops from the Ruhr. The Ruhr occupation convinced French statesmen that in future they should not try and enforce the treaty single handily again. Worried by the growing strength of Germany France looked to Britain for guarantees of security. Though Labour and Conservative governments were opposed to French efforts to strengthen the coercive powers of the League of Nations.
In 1925 Chamberlain took up an offer from Gustav Stresemann, he was prepared to enter into an agreement with France for a joint guarantee of their frontiers in Western Europe. Thanks to Chamberlain Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Belgium met at Lacarno in Switzerland in 1925. The Lacarno Pact appeared to be a breakthrough in Franco-German relations because the Germans also agreed to demilitarise the Rhineland, it was also decided that Germany should be welcomed into the League of Nations in 1926. The pact improved the international atmosphere of the late 1920’s.Britain and Italy acted as guarantors, ensuring that all parties kept to the agreements. Although Stresemann was a hard-headed German nationalist and determined to dismantle the Versailles settlement, he saw the advantage of collaboration with the western powers and was prepared to work with Chamberlain and Braid through the League of Nations. Also in 1928 all the major powers signed the Kellog-Braid pact, outlawing war.
In 1929 the Young Plan extended the period of reparations payments by 60 years, thus further easing the burden on Germany. Britain and France agreed to end their occupation of the Rhineland five years early, in 1930.
In conclusion I find that I do agree with the previous statement as there is a lot of evidence that points to Britain developing their policy of appeasement through the 1920’s and trying to mend the treaty in Germany’s favour, including the Dawes plan, which made the first links between the amount of reparations Germany had to pay and their actual ability to pay, the Locarno treaty, which improved Franco-German relations by agreeing that the Rhineand should be demilitarised and guaranteed German frontiers in the West, and the Young plan, that helped Germany by reducing their reparation payments and also evacuated allied troops from the Rhineland, etc. most importantly it would be Britain’s best interests to re-evaluate the treaty as they needed Germany to become economically strong again so that they could go back to being strong trading partners.
