My dear P.M.,

Everything has been closed since I last wrote and there is nothing
much to say this week. Hankey [1] and all Ministers have been and
are still away.

I have several matters in hand but none sufficiently advanced to
tell you about.

There is a good historical conspectus and a reasonable summing up
of the present position in an article in the January number of the
American 'Foreign Affairs' called 'Imperial policies of Great
Britain'. [2]

Hankey has just put up to the C.I.D. a novel idea for increasing
the security of frontiers. He proposes to have adjoining countries
plant a forest belt from 5 to 20 miles wide along their frontiers
with the idea of blanking as much as possible of the frontier so
as to make mutually more difficult the sudden descent of large
bodies of troops of the one country against the other. It sounds
fantastic and childish at first sight, as Hankey admits, but it
has been seriously discussed and the W.O. are looking into it
carefully to see if there is enough in it to make it worth while
submitting either to the League or to the French. Various
arguments for and against have been raised which I will not bother
you with, unless the proposal gets to the stage when it looks like
business, which I rather doubt.

There has been a good deal of correspondence and telegrams through
the F.O. lately with regard to American 'thought' and opinion on
the blockade and belligerent rights at sea, and on co-operation
with us in China. Nothing worth telling you about, except the
American attitude-the press and public attitude rather than that
of the State Department. It is summed up, I think, by saying that
they are unreasoningly and blindly suspicious of us-everything we
say and do is taken to be an attempt to 'put something over' on
the great-hearted and simple-minded American public. It will
probably pass, but this seems to be the attitude of the moment.

Sir Hugh Denison [3] will be in London for a 'short time' (I can't
find out how long) arriving about 20th January.

I will not speak about the Egyptian Treaty negotiations [4] or
Italian Flag Discrimination [5] as you will get telegrams on these
subjects when there is anything to say.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R. G. CASEY