Mainly to France, I believe.
UK only recently paid the last installment of our debt to the USA for the 2nd world war.
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The principal representative of the British Treasury at the Paris Peace Conference, John Maynard Keynes, resigned in June 1919 in protest at the scale of the demands.
"Germany will not be able to formulate correct policy if it cannot finance itself,' he warned.
A man they should have listened to. Countless millions wouldn't have been annihilated in all probability and the world would be a very different place.
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Zero - with respect, the news is year old!
R.P. - yes, absolutely on the reparations issue, it is possible to argue the French were to blame for the second world war as the scale of the payments led to the conditions that led to the rise of Hitler.
And the comments are a bit daft, the war really was from 1914-19 as the armistice was signed in 1918, not the peace treaty which followed in 1919. Some old war memorials get the dates right which is why they call the Great War, 1914-19.
Peace treaty was signed in 1919, so that to me, was the end of the war, not the payments.
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Well the French did have plans for the second conflict. They were up to Plan XV111b (v.3.8) when they collapsed in 1940. What they failed to do was to plan on how to refuel their tanks in the field....doh !
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 4 Oct 11 at 18:29
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>> Zero - with respect, the news is year old!
Slidingpillar, with respect, it wasnt me.
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I did hear or read somewhere, perhaps on QI, that the UK is still at war with , I think, Finland.
Not heard much recently about how the campaign is going !
Ted
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Which bit of Germany paid the dosh when it was partitioned ?...I can't imagine the East being very happy about it .
Ted
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>> I did hear or read somewhere, perhaps on QI, that the UK is still at
>> war with , I think, Finland.
Berwick-upon-Tweed and Russia?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick-upon-Tweed#Relations_with_Russia
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err sorry Zero
wanders off hanging head in shame
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>> Peace treaty was signed in 1919, so that to me, was the end of the
>> war, not the payments.
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I don't think they said 1919 because of the peace treaty, but simply because 1918 was only when the war with Germany ended. British troops were still engaged in fighting in odd pockets around the world into 1919, or perhaps later.
The intervention in Russia is one example, another was the action around Constantinople when the Turks resisted the terms of their armistice and threatened to move against British forces.
At the time these were obviously seen as continuations of the war, but in hindsight, as continued local actions became the norm, a cut-off of 1918 for the ending of the "real" war perhaps seemed more logical.
I don't think you can use the date of the peace treaty. On that basis the WW2 with Austria didn't end until 1954!
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my apologies , its just that the article is on the page headed with the current date , but an interesting story , i was also surprised to read that the first remembrance day parade down whitehall in 1921 wasnt all it seems, the cenotaph was made of plywood and plaster....if you can find the original old footage you can see bits fall off it when its undraped
but the one thats there now is based exactly on that design
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war ends sunday - Tigger
