ABSTRACT
The second Labour government that assumed office in 1929 faced serious problems at home and abroad. It had to deal with the ravages of the Great Depression, which soon became worldwide. When Labour took office after the summer election of 1929, prospects for the future appeared favorable. Much more central to Labour's concerns was the question of the status of Germany. For some years after the 1914 war, Labour opinion, particularly opinion on the left, had insisted that the treatment of the defeated enemy was both wrong and self-defeating. A Labour Party pamphlet, designed to in part to quiet fears that a revived Germany would become a dangerous competitor, assured its readers that what was important was that the arrangements had succeeded in wiping out the past. The Labour government moved, although quite slowly, towards regularization of relations with the Soviet government, a policy that was accepted as necessary by moderate Conservatives by a majority of the Labour Party.
