Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:15:01.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

26 - The last ‘grand bargain’ after World War I

The Hague settlement of 1929 and its aftermath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2009

Patrick O. Cohrs
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

In his first annual message to Congress on 3 December 1929, President Hoover remarked that it had been a committee of distinguished experts ‘under American leadership’ that proposed a plan ‘looking to a revision’ of the ex-allied powers' reparations claims against Germany. In his words, his administration had ‘denied itself any participation in the war settlement of general reparations’ as US claims were ‘comparatively small’, arising mainly from ‘the costs of the army of occupation’. Thus, in effect, the calibration of US interest in adopting even an informal role in the process of forging a further, final reparations settlement was distinctly different from what had informed Hughes' policy in 1924. This was underscored by the Hoover administration's original refusal, still maintained in mid-January 1929, to endorse Owen Young as chairman of the expert committee.

Subsequently, Kellogg informed Ambassador Howard ‘in strict confidence’ that while Washington still saw the political responsibility for settling reparations as lying with the European powers, it desired that they should have ‘any advice or assistance’ possible from American experts. Yet he also emphasised that the new US administration desired to leave matters largely ‘in the hands of Mr. Young’, after it had finally approved his chairmanship. As Castle noted, if the European governments ‘got in a jam where they could not organise’, Young would be asked to ‘communicate confidentially with the President’. But there would be no decisive engagement. Once they had commenced, the Hoover administration took care to dissociate itself from the Paris proceedings.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Unfinished Peace after World War I
America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919–1932
, pp. 531 - 571
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×