Spa, Conference of 1920

a meeting of the Supreme Council of the five Entente powers that took place July 5–16, 1920, in the city of Spa, Belgium, by a decision of the Conference of San Remo (1920).

Represented at the conference were Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Belgium. Also represented, to discuss questions directly affecting them, were Germany and Poland. Participants complied with the request of the German government, which alleged there was a “threat of revolution,” that execution of the military articles of the Treaty of Versailles be postponed. The conference also considered Germany’s failure to fulfill its responsibility of granting reparation. Under threat of military sanctions, Germany agreed to deliver 2 million tons of coal monthly by way of reparation; the Allies promised to give Germany credit for purchases of provisions. As a result of sharp disagreements between Great Britain and France, the Conference of Spa did not establish how much Germany owed in full but merely fixed a quota for each country that had a right to receive reparations.

The Conference of Spa resolved to grant aid to bourgeois-land lord Poland for losses incurred in its defeats in the war against the Soviet government. An English and French mission, headed by Lord D’Abernon and General M. Weygand, was sent to Poland. On the instructions of the Supreme Council of the Entente, the British foreign secretary, G. Curzon, demanded that the Soviet government allow its forces to advance no farther west than the Curzon Line.