ABSTRACT
Most British policy-makers expected Germany to play a central strategic role in postwar Europe. They considered Bolshevism to be the greatest danger to European order and believed that Germany must be a barrier against its spread. But in the negotiation of postwar security arrangements, Lloyd George’s faith in the peaceful nature of democratic governments and the efficacy of international conciliation, coupled with his recognition of the political and economic constraints on British policy, overrode his doubts about the direction of Germany’s postwar policy. Moreover, disarmament was only one aspect of the German problem and the problem of Germany only one of the major issues with which Britain’s postwar governments had to deal. Only the economic aspects of the German problem seemed to British leaders to affect Britain’s status as a world power. Consequently, the issue of reparation dominated Britain’s postwar relations with Germany.
