ABSTRACT
Disillusionment and despair followed as the peace conference in Paris made a shambles of Labour's hopes for the future. Labour's mood of hopelessness led to an almost complete rejection of the impositions of the Allied governments, coupled with the view that only a radical reconstruction of the institutions for the conduct of international relations offered any hope for the future. At the Labour and Socialist Conference that met in Berne in early February, British Labour's contribution was central. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was beginning to draw away from the majority of the Labour Party who were coming to accept that responsible policy required negotiation and compromise, concepts to which the ILP's National Administrative Committee gave relatively short shrift. Instead, in addition to its usual attack upon the whole European settlement, it attempted to make common cause with the Socialist and Labour parties of Germany, France, and Belgium.
