Lausanne Agreement
LAUSANNE AGREEMENT
LAUSANNE AGREEMENT. At a 1932 conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, the European allies of World War I agreed to eliminate the last remaining German reparations debt originally imposed under the Treaty of Versailles. They conditionally canceled nine-tenths of the obligations still in effect under the Young Plan, dependent on cancellation of their own debts to the United States. The U.S. government never accepted the arrangement; but at President Herbert Hoover's suggestion in 1931 an all-around moratorium for one year on international debts, including those to the United States, was agreed to, for the purpose of easing a desperate economy. At the expiration of the year all debtor nations defaulted, except Finland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leffler, Melvin P. The Elusive Quest: America's Purusit of European Stability and French Security, 1919–1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Wilson, Joan Hoff. American Business and Foreign Policy, 1920– 1933. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973.
Samuel FlaggBemis/a. g.
See alsoDawes Plan ; Moratorium, Hoover ; World War I ; World War I War Debts .