Lord Robert Cecil concurred with Mr. Asquith In thinking that
the exclusion of.the reparation issue from the Genoa debates was fatal. We should make every effort to induce America to take part in an economic conference. If we were not prepared to grant credits to the Bolsheviks, was it worth while to .go .to The Hague ? International conferences which led to nothing did harm. Would private persons lend money to the Bolsheviks
if there was to be no Government credit ? Lord Robert Cecil said that he feared that our relations with France were not so good as they had been before the Conference. Yet " any breach of our Entente with France would be a real disaster to Europe." Re regretted, further, the " advertised secrecy " which charac- terized the proceedings at Genoa, and which was not to be preferred to the old diplomacy or to the methods of open conference. The neutrals had been almost ignored.
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