Austen Chamberlain and Britain's Relations with France, 1924–1929

Several historians have suggested that Austen Chamberlain's Francophile tendencies during his period as foreign secretary between 1924 and 1929 were the defining features of his European diplomatic strategy. By examining four key events: the rejection of the Geneva Protocol, the conclusion of the Treaty of Locarno, the Anglo–French Compromise on disarmament and the negotiation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, this article argues that Chamberlain's relationship with the French was not entirely harmonious. After the high point of Locarno, Britain's relations with France became increasingly tense because of Chamberlain's growing disillusionment with Briand's willingness to pursue a diplomatic agenda that did not have at its heart a reinvigorated Entente Cordiale.     

Kohl's chancellorship

The Kohl Chancellorship. Edited by CLAY CLEMENS and WILLIAM E. PATERSON. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1998. £14.50 pb.

Deutschlandpolitik in Helmut Kohls Kanzlerschaft. Regierungsstil und Entscheidungen 1982–1989. By KARL‐RUDOLF KORTE. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags‐Anstalt, 1998.     

Population growth and the adoption of new technology in colonial Taiwanese agriculture

This paper argues that one response to the mortality decline in Taiwan and the consequent rapid population and labour force growth which increased the labour—land ratio was the adoption of a new labour using output‐increasing variety of rice. The differential rates of adoption of the new rice in the seven prefectures of Taiwan and across time are analysed in terms of the lagged natural increase in population, i.e. increased in the labour‐land ratio. The results are then contrasted with the Malthusian model.