ABSTRACT
The depression brought momentous, even iconoclastic, change to Britain. In a bewilderingly rapid succession of events, the gold standard was abandoned, tariffs were instituted and Imperial Preference was established. If the cumulative impact of the changes created a sense of a revolutionary break with the past, the revolutionaries were nowhere to be found. As attitudes in London towards Germany were ambivalent, the reparations and debts question was approached with some caution. The consensus was that Germany had brought the difficulties upon herself, even to the extent of manufacturing a political crisis. The debate in Britain, therefore, was over the scope and nature of tariff reform. Although tariffs formed an important part of the National Government's election platform, the Cabinet had been unable to reach a collective decision on the detail of policy. Although they could do no more than agree to disagree, victory in the elections seemed unstoppable.
