A contentious Chamberlain biography links war debts to interwar policy

The biography presents German reparations and Allied war debts as connected problems that required a common settlement. France's demands on Germany were themselves shaped by its obligations to the United States. British concessions to its debtors left the government reluctant to impose new demands that could deepen Europe's economic and political instability. Chamberlain and Baldwin initially opposed unilateral default because they feared damaging confidence in British commitments. Britain eventually stopped payments in 1934 after the reparations system had ended and American treatment of its partial repayment had reduced the incentive to continue.