put forward their idea for a non-aggression pact, and in September, after the formation of a new government under Gustav Stresemann, the leader of the German People's Party, they proposed a pact between the powers interested in the Rhine for the mutual guarantee of existing territorial arrangements. The French were not tempted by either offer. Military force alone could not extract reparations from Germany, and France and Belgium risked diplomatic isolation and a run on their currencies. Nevertheless, by the late summer of 1923 the French had broken the back of German resistance, and the parlous state of Germany's finances, hyperinflation and the prospect of the Reich breaking apart, all made Stresemann amenable to Anglo-US proposals for the establishment of two new committees to report on reparations and their payment. Their findings formed the basis for an accord on reparations which was endorsed at an international conference in London during July and August 1924. These arrangements, the so-called Dawes Plan, provided for an international loan to Germany to help stabilise its currency and a revised schedule of reparation payments. The agreement was also based on the assumption that its fulfillment would lead to the dismantling of the administrative machinery established by the French and Belgians in the Ruhr, to the withdrawal of their forces within a year, and the abandonment of French efforts to separate the Rhineland from Germany. There was, however, still plenty of scope for Franco-German disagreement, particularly where German disarmament was concerned. And the British, to whom the French still looked for support, remained wary about entering into new military obligations. In July 1924 the Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald rejected proposals for the creation of regional pacts for the application of League of Nations sanctions. But MacDonald was prepared to explore with the French a reform of the League Covenant which would oblige states to resort to arbitration for the settlement of international disputes, and which was to be linked to the adoption of a plan for the reduction of armaments. This draft protocol, popularly known as the Geneva Protocol, had still to be fmalised when in October 1924 a general election in Britain led to the formation of a new Conservative Government in which Austen Chamberlain was appointed Foreign Secretary.
The Making ofLocamo, 1925 'Throughout the Locamo era [Chamberlain] played on two chess boards .. . he played a German game and a French game. Being industrious, meticulous, and exact, he played both with great skill; never once did he .get his moves confused. ' 1. Ja~bson, Locamo Diplomacy
Even had the Labour Government remained in office it is doubtful whether it would have accepted the Geneva Protocol. The Dominion governments objected to the idea of their being drawn into disputes which were of only peripheral interest to themselves. And the Protocol was in any case dependent
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