Since then something has happened to change the outlook of Europe and
renew the hopes of peace. It is the London Agreement by which Germany,
France, Great Britain, Belgium, and Italy agreed on Saturday, August
16—ten years and fourteen days after the beginning of the world war—to
accept the chief provisions of the Dawes Report for the restoration
of German credit by international loans and to establish a business
settlement of the reparations problem with German consent. As Ramsay
MacDonald, Labour Prime Minister, said at the conclusion of the London
Conference, this agreement was “the first Peace Treaty” since the end
of the world conflict, “because we sign it with a feeling that we have
turned our backs on the terrible years of war and war mentality.”
Three great events in the political world led up to this new hope of
peace and progress. The first was the friendly co-operation of the
United States in the endeavour to find a business solution on the
subject of German reparations. The second was the advent of a Labour
Government in England. The third was the downfall of Poincaré, owing to
a change of view in France which put Herriot into power as an opponent
of the Poincaré school of thought.