Locarno Conference of 1925

an international conference of representatives of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Poland. The Locarno Conference was held on October 5–16 in Locarno, Switzerland, in conjunction with the conclusion of the Rhine pact and a number of other agreements, known collectively as the Locarno Treaties of 1925. The initiators of the Locarno Conference pursued anti-Soviet goals. As notes from secret sessions of the conference indicate, three possible variations for German participation in actions (formally under the flag of the League of Nations) directed against the USSR were outlined: direct participation in war, indirect participation by allowing troops to cross German territory, and economic sanctions. Representatives of Germany, having initialed the Rhine pact at the Locarno Conference, did not make any specific commitments to participate in anti-Soviet actions. Germany’s position was dictated by its desire to preserve an independent foreign policy and, toward that end, to maintain relations with the Soviet Union; these relations had begun with the Rapallo Treaty of 1922. In 1926 a Soviet-German treaty on nonaggression and neutrality was concluded; this step considerably weakened the anti-Soviet thrust of the Locarno policy. On the whole, the Locarno Conference laid the foundation for a regrouping of the imperialist powers on the European continent.