Hague Conference on Reparations of 1929-30

an international conference on reparations that discussed and adopted the Young Plan; it was held at The Hague from Aug. 6 to Aug. 31, 1929, and from Jan. 3 to Jan. 20, 1930. The first session of the Hague Conference on Reparations (Aug. 6-31, 1929) was attended by representatives of Belgium, Czecho-slovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. The USA did not officially participate in the conference; however, having proposed the Young Plan, it exerted pressure on the participants in the conference for adoption of the plan.

At the Hague Conference on Reparations a struggle broke out between Great Britain and France over three questions: the distribution of the so-called unconditional part of the reparation payments—that is, the part not subject to postponement; deliveries in kind (Great Britain demanded their reduction in the interest of increasing its own exports, especially coal); and the percentage distribution of the total sum of the reparation payments among the creditor nations. As a result of secret negotiations among the main participants at the conference, a protocol approving the Young Plan in principle was signed on Aug. 31, 1929. The final confirmation of the Young Plan, as well as the adoption of a resolution on the application of sanctions in case Germany refused to pay reparations, took place at the second session of the conference (Jan. 3-20, 1930), at which Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary were represented, in addition to the states that had participated in the first session.

One of the main decisions of the conference was an agreement on the withdrawal ahead of time of all occupation troops from the Rhineland (five years earlier than the time established by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and not later than June 30, 1930).