In July 1914 Poincare went to Russia on a visit which had been planned for some time past. He was on his way home, hav ing arranged to visit the three Scandinavian capitals, when the news of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia reached him. After a short stay in Stockholm he returned hastily to Paris ; and in a letter to King George V. he pleaded for a clear declaration that the entente cordiale, if necessary, would prove its strength on the battlefield, pointing out that such a statement would have a restraining effect on the policy of Vienna and Berlin. Throughout the World War he continued to perform his duty with the same energy and discretion as before ; though sometimes he visited the front, he never placed any obstacle whatever in the way either of the Government or of the army. In Nov. 1917 he gave proof of his vision and disregard of self by placing in power Clemen ceau, who, though undoubtedly the man of the moment, was one with whom he had little sympathy. During the critical months of 1918, Poincare revealed an inflexible resolution and a supreme confidence in the ultimate victory.
During the peace negotiations divergence of views again be came apparent between Poincare and Clemenceau. On more than one occasion the president found it necessary to write to the prime minister pointing out the errors which, from his point of view, were being committed. His counsels, however, were not followed, and at the beginning of 192o, after having completed seven years as president, he left the Elysee and was shortly after re-elected senator for the department of the Meuse. In Jan. 1922, the Briand cabinet having resigned, Poincare once more became prime minister and minister for foreign affairs. He made it his chief aim to insist on the fulfilment by Germany of her obligations in regard to reparations. During the first year of his new govern ment he failed to arrive at any agreement on this subject with the British cabinet, whose views differed so widely from his own. The Inter-Allied Conference in London in Aug. and Dec. 1922 produced no result. A further conference took place in Paris on Jan. 2 and 5, 1923. But Poincare rejected the proposals drawn up by Bonar Law.
At this moment, the Reparations Commission, with Britain dissenting, having declared that Germany had failed to fulfil her obligations in regard to the delivery of coal and coke, Poincare, in agreement with Belgium, undertook the occupation of the Ruhr (q.v.). At first this measure involved merely a method of control, but gradually, owing to the passive resistance of the Germans, it became necessary to exploit the railways and to some extent also the mines by means of Franco-British supervision.
But by autumn the passive resistance had ceased, and Poincare awaited the German proposals which never came. He then accepted the American suggestion that a group of experts should be given the task of finding the solution of the reparation prob lem; this resulted in the adoption of the Dawes Plan. But Poin care had made up his mind not to withdraw from the Ruhr until he was satisfied that this plan was being carried out.
During the first three months of 1924 Poincare had to face a financial crisis due to the state of the exchange. Not without
difficulty he induced parliament to vote new taxes and succeeded in saving the situation. But from now onwards he had to with stand strenuous opposition from the parties of the Left consisting of the Radicals and Socialists. The policy of these groups met with a marked success at the general elections of May 11, 1924, and resulted in a majority for the Left which now formed a coali tion under the name of the Cartel des Gauches. Immediately the results were announced, Poincare stated that he would retire on the day when the new Chamber was to assemble, which took place on June 1, 1924.
Thenceforward he took his place in the senate, intervening only raxely in political debates. But he was to come into power once more. When, in the middle of the summer of 1926, the financial crisis, which successive cabinets since 1924 had been unable to check, became more and more serious, public opinion saw in him the only man capable of meeting the situation. After the fall of the Briand-Caillaux cabinet, which only lasted a few weeks, and of the Herriot cabinet, which only existed a few hours, Poincare, in the last days of July, formed a ministry which included both moderate Republicans and Radical-Socialists, and had as its object the stabilization of French finances by means of a policy of na tional union. Public opinion was immediately reassured. At the beginning of August the ministry caused the national assembly, meeting at Versailles, to pass, as articles embodied in the consti tution, and therefore not at the mercy of political changes, regu lations for the establishment of an automatic sinking-fund, to which would be attributed funds which could not be touched (death duties, revenues from the tobacco monopoly, etc.).
In three months he succeeded in raising the value of the franc from 264 francs to the pound sterling, to 124. This rate was achieved in Dec. 1926, and thenceforward the value of the franc did not fluctuate. For a year and a half Poincare, who had restored a strict financial equilibrium, maintained this stabiliza tion of the currency de facto. The general election of April 1928 having returned a majority which approved of his policy, a law was voted in June by the new assembly, and by the senate, estab lishing the stabilization de iure. It was one of the most successful operations of this nature in history. Withdrawal of the Radical Socialist support from his government, engineered by Caillaux, caused his resignation on Nov. 7, 1928, but he formed a new ministry on Nov. 12. He resigned because of illness, on July 27, 1929. Poincare undertook the publication of an important work in io volumes, entitled Au service de la France; neuf annees de souvenirs, the plan of which is to describe the sequence of events from 1911 to 192o and the role which he himself played in them. Four of these volumes appeared in 1926, 1927 and 1928 under the titles of Le lendemain d'Agadir, Les Balkans en feu, L'Europe sous les armes, and L'Union sacree. He died Oct. 15, 1934.
See H. Girard, Raymond Poincare (1913); E. Charton, L'Angleterre et M. Poincare (1923) ; S. Huddleston, Poincare (1924) ; Sir George Arthur, ed., Memoirs of Raymond Poincare (1929). (P. B.)