Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General introduction
- Note to the reader
- Part I Reactions to ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919–1924)
- Part II Keynes and ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ Opinion (1919–1920)
- Part III Towards ‘A Revision of the Treaty’ (1921)
- 11 The Paris and London Conferences
- 12 ‘Europe's Economic Outlook’
- 13 Preparing the ‘Revision’
- Part IV ‘A Revision’ Reviewed (1922–1924)
- Part V ‘Reconstruction in Europe’ (1921–1923)
- List of Documents Reproduced
- Index
11 - The Paris and London Conferences
from Part III - Towards ‘A Revision of the Treaty’ (1921)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General introduction
- Note to the reader
- Part I Reactions to ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919–1924)
- Part II Keynes and ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ Opinion (1919–1920)
- Part III Towards ‘A Revision of the Treaty’ (1921)
- 11 The Paris and London Conferences
- 12 ‘Europe's Economic Outlook’
- 13 Preparing the ‘Revision’
- Part IV ‘A Revision’ Reviewed (1922–1924)
- Part V ‘Reconstruction in Europe’ (1921–1923)
- List of Documents Reproduced
- Index
Summary
As the events of the next six months were developing, Keynes was about to take up in earnest the career of an active and influential writer and propagandist, a career which he followed for the next twenty years until the Government claimed his services for World War II.
At the end of January 1921 another international conference was called, this time in Paris, to determine what Germany should pay. As soon as the proposed terms were known, Keynes received a telegram from C. P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian, asking for a signed article. The telegram arrived Saturday, 29 January, and at the request of the Guardian Keynes wired the article to Manchester the next day from London because the Cambridge post office was closed on Sunday. ‘Unluckily,’ Scott wrote to Keynes (2 February), ‘your secretary omitted to pay at press-rates (1/- per hundred words) but I hope to recover the difference from the post office.’
In a note to Scott (30 January) accompanying the typescript which Keynes sent in the wake of the telegram, he expressed unusual anxiety about the article.
I hope you will not think it too violent; but in my judgment the result of the Paris Conference is definitely retrograde as compared with the conversations which had been going on previously.
Scott replied (31 January):
I was delighted that you took so strong a line. It will give pause to a good deal of thoughtless congratulation and be a warning against what may happen if a serious attempt is made to enforce the proposed terms.
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- Information
- The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes , pp. 207 - 241Publisher: Royal Economic SocietyPrint publication year: 1978