23 DECEMBER 1922, Page 1

Lord Curzon is to be very warmly congratulated upon the

way in which he has represented and maintained the interests not only of this country but of peace and reason at Lausanne. His has been an almost daily triumph, and he deserves the gratitude and respect of the whole Empire. It would be difficult to sketch in imagination circumstances more unfavourable than those, in which he undertook his task. He seemed to have all the cards against him. In the first place, the late Prime Minister's system of double diplomacy, under which the right hand in the Foreign Office did not know what the left hand in the Secretariat at 10 Downing Street was doing, had created a state of confusion and diplomatic disconsideration abroad for this country which it is difficult to exaggerate.