Tt is confidently expected that invitations t6 a special Imperial Conference in London at an early date to discuss the Geneva Protocol and the general policy of the Empire on the question of security will be enabled from "London to the Dominions during the week-end.
It appears, says the diplomatic! correspondent of the " Observer," that Mr. Austen Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has made up his mind that security is the most important question confronting him.
The postponement of the evacuation of the Cologne zone, the correspondent asserts, is really due to the fact that evacuation would rais questions immediately affecting the question of security."
The Government's policy will emphatically be an Empire policy, the writer adds, and observes that elemental questions affecting the whole Empire must be faced in India, Egypt, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Pacific and the Rhine, "Thus' in the Government's view the Singapore project is linked up with, for example, the question of Cologne, The main energy of the Govern ment in foreign affairs for the next few months will be devoted to an attempt, the correspondent declares, to achieve world security through the medium of the League of Na-
London, Dee. 23, Marquess Curzon's statement in the House of Lords yesterday with regard to the evacuation of the Cologne zone has created consternation in Government circles. of the Foreign Office that prolongation the occupation without consulting the German Government would be regarded as a flagrant breach of the Treaty of Versailles and would seriously affect the internal political situation and greatly increase the franks of Germans who claimed that the policy of fulfilment and conciliation to the Allies had not been paid.
Official circles hotly deny the allegation of German obstruction the Military Mission. They point lout that the Mission recently carried out over 1,700. inspections without
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