Up to 1921 Labour had no detailed policy on reparations and European economic reconstruction. The general party line was to criticise the Versailles Treaty, insofar as it was inconsistent with the stipulations of the 1918 armistice, but insist that some reparations must be paid. No attempt was made to construct a detailed critique of the treaty. The party did not engage fully with the government in its handling of the post-Versailles negotiations. Keynes's attack on the post-war settlement was debated by some in the advisory committee, but not by the party as a whole. Labour instead relied, in official statements, on almost ritualised calls for a ‘revision of the Treaty’. Exactly what was meant by this phrase was not made clear. It was only as a result of economic, political and international developments of the early post-war years that Labour finally began to think seriously about what precisely it wanted to ‘revise’. As a result, between 1921 and the end of 1923, and in contrast with the earlier period, Labour's leadership engaged fully in debates on the financial and economic situation in Europe, such that by the time that they entered government they had a firm idea of the approach that they wished to pursue.