4 - Diplomatic preliminaries

Summary

The Boulogne meeting removed perhaps the most substantial obstacle to the further progress of the conference proposal so far as inter-Allied relations were concerned. Lloyd George announced on his return that he and Poincaré had been in ‘absolute agreement’ and that no further meetings would be necessary before the conference itself began. ‘Undoubtedly all difficulties have been swept away’, The Times commented on 27 February 1922. In Paris, Le Temps noted that the meeting had taken place in an atmosphere of the ‘greatest cordiality and also a great spirit of conciliation’. Like its London counterpart, it thought the signature of an Anglo-French pact could not be long delayed, and it thought it ‘certain’ that both Lloyd George and Poincaré would attend the conference in person, at least for the first two or three weeks. Lloyd George himself saw an official in the French embassy after the meeting, and declared himself ‘extremely satisfied’; accord had been reached on all points, and the pact, although not discussed at Boulogne, was likely to be concluded in the near future. Hardinge wrote to Curzon from Paris, however, having examined the protocol of the meeting, and remarked that there appeared to have been an ‘atmosphere of bickering without very great results’. He noted, in particular, that Poincaré had avoided giving unequivocal commitments in respect of either his own attendance at the conference or the recognition of the Soviet government.