stresemann's decision to end passive resistance was motivated by his view that making a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of versailles was the only way to win relief from the treaty's harsher provisions. he, like virtually every german, felt versailles was an onerous "diktat" that sullied the nation's honour. however, he felt that trying to fulfill the treaty's terms was the only way germany could demonstrate that the reparations bill was truly beyond its capacity. he also wished to recover the rhineland - he wrote to the crown prince on 23 july 1923: "the most important objective of german politics is the liberation of german territory from foreign occupation. first, we must remove the strangler from our throat".