Sir Joseph Maclay's forecast that shipping and raw materials would not be absolutely scarce once hostilities ceased was borne out in fact, although particular difficulties over shipping remained for some months. The overriding problem for reconstruction proved to be finance, in a variety of forms.

The months between the armistice and the signature of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 can be divided into two periods. In the first, down to the end of March, reconstruction problems largely centred on France, along with immediate relief for central and eastern Europe which is discussed in Chapter 4. The French on the one hand tried to obtain Allied cooperation in their country's reconstruction by such means as controlling raw materials and redistributing war costs. They were defeated by American refusal of cooperation and as a result turned instead to getting as much reparation as possible from Germany: in the latter form the problem continued to the signature of the peace treaty – and of course beyond it. Secondly, the French wanted to continue the wartime financial arrangements of unlimited advances from the United States and Britain, to sustain the value of the franc and to pay for imports. Immediate French needs were largely met, but the attempt could not succeed for long. The United States government was trying to wind up its lending activities, and its power to make advances was running out.