Ratification of the economic conference resolutions

The British chronology of the war records under 27 June 1916 the ratification of the recommendations of the Allied economic conference in Paris. They were then approved by the government of France, the host of the conference and the chief advocate of its ideas. The “Annual Register” wrote that the policy agreed in Paris met with almost unanimous support in France, and that at the end of June the Council of Ministers formally ratified and adopted all the resolutions. The French Foreign Ministry later explained to the Americans that such ratification by the government was final and did not require the consent of parliament. Some of the recommendations concerning wartime France was applying already in any case, since the ban on trading with the enemy, the ban on importing enemy goods, the sequestration of enterprises and the contraband lists had been introduced by decree before the conference.

Publication of the resolutions

The text of the recommendations was published simultaneously in the Allied capitals on 20 June. On the same day the British government laid it before Parliament. The French Minister of Commerce, Étienne Clémentel, who had chaired the conference, explained to journalists that the Allies did not intend to attack anyone, and that neutral countries “had nothing to fear”. He stressed that there was no question of a common customs policy and that each country remained completely independent. At the same time he recalled that the Germans were carrying off raw materials and machinery from the occupied territories and stockpiling goods so as to flood the markets with them at cut prices after the war, and that the Central Powers “would have to give back what they had taken”.

Dispute in London

In Britain the resolutions touched the most sensitive point of its policy: free trade. Most members welcomed them with enthusiasm, but Liberal free traders saw in them a portent of tariffs and of waging war after the peace was made. On 22 June the Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, stated in the House of Commons that the British delegation had received no special instructions, although it had itself proposed a number of resolutions, and repeated that they did not bind Parliament. The next day, at a large reception in honour of the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, the Colonial Secretary, Andrew Bonar Law, argued that the resolutions would be accepted both by the government and by the present House of Commons, and could be regarded as the settled policy of the British government. Hughes, who had been the loudest in demanding economic war on Germany, sailed for Australia on 24 June.

On 26 June members bombarded the Prime Minister with questions. Supporters of tariffs demanded that the recommendations be put into effect immediately; opponents asked whether Bonar Law had been right to call them the policy of the Cabinet. Asquith replied: “Time will show”, and someone in the House added his famous “Wait and see”. The Liberal Robert Outhwaite asked whether one day’s debate would be enough for a matter that meant Britain’s abandonment of free trade. On 27 June Asquith promised members a debate, and on 28 June he confirmed that the representatives of Russia and Italy had also agreed to the resolutions. London did not carry out a formal ratification. At the end of the year the American ambassador reported that the British government had “approved” the resolutions, since ratification applied only to treaties, and that no new legislation had been passed on the matter.

Russia and America

On 26 June the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Sazonov, assured the American ambassador, David Francis, that the conference had been a great success and that the Allies had no intention of excluding America from trade with Russia. When Francis pointed to the provision under which the surpluses of one ally were to go first to the other allies and only then to neutral states, Sazonov replied that the decisions of the conference were not yet binding but merely recommendations. Francis believed that the aim of the conference was to tighten the blockade around the Central Powers and to extend it to industry and trade after the war. In August the State Department replied that it did not believe the Allies wished to close their markets to Americans, but asked him to keep it constantly informed of where public opinion in Europe was heading. According to the French Foreign Ministry, by the end of 1916 the resolutions had been ratified by all the states that had signed them except Italy, Russia and Japan, the last two of which were close to doing so.