The Versailles Legacy
Derek Aldcroft argues that the statesmen of 1919 failed to act in the interests of Europe as a whole.
Both Sir Edward Grey and Maynard Keynes were remarkably perceptive about Europe's future in the aftermath of war. On the eve of hostilities the former commented: 'The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time' Keynes in his vitriolic denunciation of the peace settlement with Germany, wrote as follows: 'The Treaty includes no provisions far the economic rehabilitation of Europe – nothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbours, nothing to stabilise the new States Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote in any way a compact of economic solidarity amongst the Allies themselves, no arrangement was reached Pans for restoring the disordered finances of France and Italy, or to adjust the systems of the Old World and the New' (Keynes 1920, 211).
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