Dawes Plan had, after all, meant the abandonment of any further attempt to alter the existing settlement in the Rhineland in France's favour, and it implied a rejection of the policy pursued by Poincare in the Ruhr. Yet both Herriot and Briand, who became Foreign Minister on 17 April, were determined that there should be no evacuation of Cologne before Germany was disarmed. They also insisted that the security of Czechoslovakia, with whom France had concluded an alliance in 1924, and Poland should not be ignored, and that Germany should join the League of Nations and accept the obligations of Article XVI (the sanctions article) of the Covenant. Stresemann had already made clear Germany's willingness to conclude arbitration treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia. It was, however, more than apparent that no German government could afford to do anything that might hinder either the peaceful revision of Germany's eastern frontiers or the eventual reincorporation of Austria in the German body politic. Rather like pre-war France in its attitude towards Alsace-Lorraine, Germany was not prepared to guarantee frontiers which it regarded as patently unjust. Stresemann had in any case -to take into account the opinions of those within and outside the Wilhelmstrasse who believed that his pursuit of an accommodation with France meant the abandonment of Weimar Germany's alignment with Soviet Russi~ relationship symbolized by the Rapallo treaty of April 1922 and made manifest in the economic and military collaboration of Europe's two pariah powers. Poland and Soviet Russia had already fought each other in 1920-21, and Stresemann wished to avoid any suggestion that in the event of a renewal of this conflict Germany should be required to assist Poland under Article XVI, either by participating in economic or military sanctions against Russia, or by pennitting the transportation of foreign troops across German territory. It was, nevertheless, the eastern frontiers of France rather than the eastern orientation of Germany that gave the French most cause for concern in the negotiations which preceded the conclusion of the Locarno treaties. In discussions with them during June and July 1925 Chamberlain and his officials made it clear that they could not underwrite the status quo in eastern Europe, and that they wished to limit Britain's obligation to give immediate military assistance to France and Belgium only to those instances where such aid was necessary to defend against actual attack or to 'repel invasion'. They thought a German violation of the DMZ should not in itself be sufficient cause for Britain to be required to go to the immediate assistance of France or Belgium. But Briand insisted that any infringement of the Rhineland settlement by Gennany should be regarded as an act of aggression. Eventually, he and Chamberlain resolved their differences during conversations in London on 11-12 August. They agreed that if, for instance, the Gennans were to begin the construction of fortifications in the DMZ, no action could be taken until the matter had been examined by the League Council; and that British military assistance would be immediate 'only in the event of some serious threat of an aggressive character which would confer some distinct advantage on the aggressor'. The French meanwhile rejected Stresemann' s demands that the conclusion of a mutual
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