Hague Conference of 1922

Hague Conference of 1922 

an international financial and economic conference at The Hague (the Netherlands), held from June 15 to July 19 in accordance with the decision of the Genoa Conference of 1922. The Hague Conference was attended by representatives of the states that had attended the Genoa Conference, except Germany. The head of the Soviet delegation was M. M. Litvinov. The main delegations of the capitalist states at the Hague Conference— unlike those at the Genoa Conference—were primarily representatives of business circles. (For instance, the representatives from Great Britain were Lloyd-Greame, secretary of foreign trade, and L. Urquhart, former director of the board of the Russo-Asian Bank, which was the former owner of the Kyshtym and Lena mines; and from France, Alphand, director of the Bureau for the Protection of the Private Property of French Citizens in Russia.)

The Hague Conference was called to discuss the claims of the capitalist countries against the Soviet government because of the nationalization of the property of foreign capitalists, the repudiation of the debts of the tsarist and provisional governments, and questions of credit to Soviet Russia. The representatives of the capitalist countries, rejecting all the proposals of the Soviet delegation aimed at international cooperation, refused to discuss the question of credit at the Hague Conference; they insisted on the return of nationalized property to its former owners. The Soviet delegation resolutely declined these requests. Essentially, the Hague Conference did not adopt any decisions.

Publication

Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, vol. 5. Moscow, 1961.

REFERENCE

Shtein, B. E. Gaagskaia konferentsiia. Moscow, 1922.

I. I. MINTS