Whilst the Spa Conference made no attempt to discuss the general question of the Reparation settlement, it was again agreed that the latter should be tackled at an early date. But time passed by, and nothing happened. On September 23, 1920, M. Millerand succeeded to the Presidency of the French Republic, and his place as Premier was taken by M. Leygues. French official opinion steadily receded from the concessions, never fully admitted to the French public, which Mr. Lloyd George had extracted at Boulogne. They now preferred to let the machinery of the Reparation Commission run its appointed course. At last, however, on November 6, 1920, after much diplomatic correspondence, it was announced that once again the French and British Governments were in “complete accord.” A conference of experts, nominated by the Reparation Commission, was to sit with German experts and report; then a conference of ministers was to meet the German Government and report; with these two reports before it the Reparation Commission was to fix the amount of Germany’s liability; and finally, the heads of the Allied Governments were to meet and “take decisions.” “Thus,” _The Times_ recorded, “after long wanderings in the wilderness we are back once more at the Treaty of Versailles.” The re–perusal of old files of newspapers, which the industrious author has undertaken, corroborates, if nothing else does, the words of the Preacher and the dustiness of fate. The first stage of this long procedure was in fact undertaken, and certain permanent officials of the Allied Governments[6] met German representatives at Brussels, shortly before Christmas 1920, to ascertain facts and to explore the situation generally. This was a conference of “experts” as distinguished from the conferences of “statesmen” which preceded and followed it. The work of the Brussels experts was so largely ignored and overthrown by the meetings of the statesmen at Paris shortly afterwards, that it is not now worth while to review it in detail. It marked, however, a new phase in our relations with Germany. The officials of the two sides met in an informal fashion and talked together like rational beings. They were representative of the pick of what might be called “international officialdom,” cynical, humane, intelligent, with a strong bias towards facts and a realistic treatment. Both sides believed that progress was being made towards a solution; mutual respect was fostered; and a sincere regret was shared at the early abandonment of reasonable conversations.