Rapidly changing French coalition governments operated beneath the relative continuity of President Gaston Doumergue. France was also carrying the demographic, physical, psychological, and economic consequences of the First World War, while its navy ranked low among national priorities. Surviving veterans' physical injuries and psychological wounds also affected the workforce. Despite the navy's low priority, French leaders feared an Anglo-American arrangement that could leave them strategically disadvantaged. Earlier Anglo-French talks had alarmed Washington, while subsequent British-American coordination produced the mirror-image fear in Paris.
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French instability and fear of an Anglo-American settlement
France approached naval diplomacy through unstable coalition politics, postwar strain, and suspicion that Britain and America might dictate the outcome together.