ABSTRACT
To many Frenchmen, post-war foreign policy seems, in retrospect, to have consisted of a series of rearguard actions, in which France was compelled to renounce. In 1947, France formed a customs and currency union with the Saar, a Saar constitution was accepted by a plebiscite and, as a result of general elections, a Saar government was set up under the leadership of the majority party, the Christian democrats. In the field of European policy, growing American exasperation at the continued hostility of a large section of French opinion to the ratification of the E.D.C. Treaty, and French dissatisfaction with the scope of British commitments regarding ‘association’ led to a threefold attempt to escape from the apparent deadlock. The compromise, when found, proved unacceptable to France’s co-signatories and the Assembly’s refusal, on 30 August, to ratify the treaty was followed by the London Conference.
