Inter-Allied Control Commission

This essay considers the work of the key agency - the Military Inter-Allied Control Commission (MICC) - and the German response to its efforts. Using newly released and rarely used archives, we explore why, whatever its intentions, postwar control largely failed, and in some respects proved counter-productive. The struggle on the Rhine became a war the victors lost. German interests out-manoeuvred Allied efforts, with consequences that would echo around the world for years to come. 

In June 1919, the Allied Council of Four discussed the establishment of military controls in detail. Their initial assumption was that these would be completed within three months of the Treaty coming into effect. To administer controls, the Allies called for three Inter-Allied Commissions (military, naval and air), to be presided over by a French general, a British admiral and a British general, respectively. In July 1919, the Military Inter-Allied Control Commission was set up, and the French General Nollet was appointed President. ... 

Third, the Allies suffered from a failure of principle, arising from the Treaty s intrinsic failure to resolve the dual-use dilemma , the riddle that, long before Lefebure, Brigadier Hartley had foreseen. The Military Inter-Allied Control Commission could and did order the German government to sell or demolish its state-owned military production facilities but its authority over private industry was almost ineffective. Despite abrogating contracts and dismantling plant, as... 

The German Government must furnish to the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control all such information and documents as the latter may deem necessary to ensure the complete execution of the military clauses, and in particular all legislative documents and regulations. 

UNA, op. cit. note 55, Inter-Allied Military Control Commissions Germany. Col. 57, Articles 164 a 17214-15. 

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