<P> Britain sought to maintain close relationships with France and the United States; however the U.S. refused to renegotiate its wartime loans . In the 1920s Britain rejected isolationism and sought world peace through naval arms limitation treaties, and peace with Germany through the Locarno treaties of 1925 . A main goal was to restore Germany to a peaceful, prosperous state . The Dominions (Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) achieved virtual independence in foreign policy in 1931, though each depended heavily upon British naval protection . After 1931 trade policy favoured the Commonwealth with tariffs against the U.S. and others . </P> <P> The success at Locarno in handling the German question impelled Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain, working with France and Italy, to find a master solution to the diplomatic problems of Eastern Europe and the Balkans . It proved impossible to overcome mutual antagonisms, because Chamberlain's programme was flawed by his misperceptions and fallacious judgments . </P> <P> Britain thought disarmament was the key to peace . France, with its profound fear of German militarism, strenuously opposed the idea . In the early 1930s, most Britons saw France, not Germany, as the chief threat to peace and harmony in Europe . France did not suffer as severe an economic recession, and was the strongest military power, but still it refused British overtures for disarmament . </P> <P> Politically the coalition government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George depended primarily on Conservative Party support . He increasingly antagonized his supporters with foreign policy miscues regarding the Middle East . Lloyd George led a coalition dominated by the Conservative Party even though he belonged to the bitterly divided Liberal Party . The Chanak Crisis of 1922 brought Britain to the brink of war with Turkey, but the Dominions were opposed and the British military was hesitant, so peace was preserved, but Lloyd George lost control of the coalition and never again became Prime Minister . </P>

Who began a policy of isolationism in the 1600s