THE COLOGNE ZONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 5

THE COLOGNE ZONE.

NO EVACUATION YET. | DIVERSITY OF VIEWS. GERMANY'S HIDDEN ARMS. (By Cable.—Press Association.— Copyright.) LONDON, December 28. A Paris message says that the Ambassadors' Conference unanimously decided to notify Germany of the impossibility of evacuating the Cologne zone on January

10. Following the decision to postpone evacuation, a Note will be addressed to Germany, the terms of which will be decided at a meeting of Ambassadors on Wednesday. . The participation of Marshal Foch in the Ambassadors' Conference has naturally attracted attention. The diplomatic correspondent of the "Observer" says that the British Government genuinely desires to evacuate Cologne, but France, for reasons well understood in Berlin, desires the Allied occupation to be prolonged as long as possible. So long, therefore, as Francis able to present a case showing that Germany has defaulted in carrying out the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, whether the defaults are serious or not, the British. Government is handicapped. Technically, the postponement of the evacuation is attributed to the delay in receiving the inspectors' report, but it ( should be. recognised in Rerlin that the respite gives the British Government an opportunity of settling the question of Cologne as one aspect of the larger question of security. It is hoped in British official circles that Germany will endeavour to facilitate pome arrangement by which France will be guaranteed against unprovoked aggression. The whole question of the evacuation of the Ruhr and Cologne can then be quickly settled. A Paris message says it is stated authoritatively that while Germany is pressing for evacuation, declaring that the inter-Allied inquiry into German armaments had been without result, as a matter of fact, the commission recently found several hundred thousand rifles and a number of machine guns, showing that Germany is contravening the clauses of the Versailles Treaty concerning disarmament. Tt is understood that the report of the inter-Allied commission will be published to demonstrate to the world that Germany has not fulfilled her obligations.— (A. and N.Z. and Reuter.) WHAT NOLLET SAYS. PREPARATIONS TOR WAR. (Received 1.30 p.m.l PARIS, December 28. The "Eclair" has now published the alleged text of the report in which General Nollet, ex-president of the TnterAllied Commission on the military control of Germany, now Minister of War, sets forth a number of points in which Germany is not observing the treaty from the military point of view. He declares that the organisation of a great general staff has attained pre-war proportions, as also Tias the military organisation of the railways. The training of the various divisions of the army is on the same intensive scale, and is intended as a preparation for war. He alleges that no account has been taken of restrictions regarding aviation, tanks or poison gas. —(A. and N.Z. Cable.)