The differences between the French and British governments were also apparent at the beginning of April, when the German government was suppressing the Spartacist revolt. To the east of the Allied armies in the occupied portion of Germany there was a neutral zone, into which, by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the German government were not allowed to send troops. During the Spartacist insurrection which followed the
coup d'état in Berlin (see
1920 in Germany), the revolutionaries in the valley of the Ruhr, a highly industrialized district which was included in the neutral zone, took advantage of the unavoidable absence of the government forces to seize control of the entire administration of this important part of Germany. The German government applied for permission to send forces into this part of the neutral zone in the exceptional circumstances which had arisen, as without doing so it was impossible for them to overcome the revolt in the neutral zone itself, or to prevent the successful insurrection in that zone lending important support to the Spartacists farther east. The British, Italian, and American governments were all in favour of allowing the German government, which in the circumstances existing was a bulwark against the spread of Bolshevism, to send a limited number of troops into the neutral zone until law and order had been reestablished there. The French government, however, interposed obstacles to the granting of any such license to the German government. The revolt continued to spread, and at the beginning of April German troops marched into the Ruhr Valley to restore order, although no permission for them to do so had been granted by the Allies as a whole. Thereupon the French government, without the consent of the British and Italian governments, ordered their own troops to march forward into the neutral zone - though not into the same part of the neutral zone - and to occupy various German towns as a penalty for the German advance.
Frankfurt,
Darmstadt, and
Hanau were occupied on 6 April, and
Homburg was entered on the following day. Black troops took part in the advance, a point which gave special umbrage to the Germans. This independent action on the part of the French government led to an interchange of somewhat sharp notes between London and Paris, the British government taking exception both to the French advance in itself and still more so to the fact that the advance had been made without due consultation with the other Allied governments. Within a few days, however, an agreement between the French and British governments was reached. The black troops were immediately withdrawn, and the French government made it clear that in the future they would not act without securing the consent of the other Allies. The British government on their side made it clear that they intended to see the terms of the Treaty of Versailles respected by the German government. After the suppression of the Ruhr revolt, both the German and French troops were withdrawn.
During the spring and summer there were various conferences between the French, British, and other Allied governments, at
San Remo,
Hythe,
Spa, and elsewhere, these conferences relating largely to the reparations due from Germany under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. At these discussions similar differences of opinion appear to have existed between the British and French representatives, the British being more disposed than the French to recognize the difficulties with which the German government were confronted. But these differences of opinion only related to questions of method, and were in no way fundamental. In the middle of May Poincaré, the ex-president of France, resigned his position as president of the Reparations Commission, on account of what he regarded as the undue leniency which had been shown towards Germany. Millerand stated publicly, however, that he thought Poincaré's fears were groundless.
Who needs the British?
