Disregarding—for the moment provided it be agreed that the—the peradventures of the inauguration of Manchukuo on "Daily Mail" and its kind, let a March 9, 1932, constituted no Plain statement suffice.
No breach of Treaty obligations. The virtue of a'fait accompli way be potent. Cynicism runs riot if it is held to be all-compelling here, Even the Lytton Commission's "recognition of the impossibility of returning to the [status quo ante does not go $0 far in elevating realities above all considerations of the meaning actions, to the flouting of the reater realities latent in the established importance of good faith and the plighted word.
Recognising, as most people do, that he was on delicate ground, it must be confessed that Count Uchida made convincing speech, He avoided the hectoring tone of some of his, previous public pronouncements but he lamentably failed to reconcile admirable principles with the events which he had to review. In rightly drawing attention to the political confusion in China he might, have been expected to meet the charge that Japanese action had into fied that confusion. He did not en explain how it was that Japan hoped to assist in the stabilisation of this country by the steps taken North of the Great Wall and by the minatory attitude adopted by him toward the Chinese Government. Reuli-Hes do not seem to be insisted: when the Foreign Minister of a Great Power tells a weaker but, nevertheless, independent nation that friendship is to be enforced at the point of the bayonet, In referring to the seriousness of the Communist menace in China Count Uchida did not, consider apparently, the possible effect of Japanese action in impairment of the Chinese Government's resources for dealing with that me Nor did he trouble to provide a logical link between Japan's own friendl ness toward Russia and his detection of sinister possibilities in Sino-Russian rapprochement, He commented on the vigour of the anti-Japanese movement in China as if it were an unreason-fable and irrelevant delinquency on which the alarums of the North had no conceivable influence. History has yet to record that one nation can instal brotherly love among the orderly. emotions of another by use of the superior force of milita equipment, unaccompanied that process is, at the present moment, by any clear indication of the limits of its intentions. The peace of the Far East depends on Sino-Japanete friendship. Count Uchida yields to no-one in recognition of that basic axiom. Japanese difficn! ties in cultivating friendship with China have, in the past, been gravely accentuated by the prevailing uncertainties of China's policy and of the position of her Government. On that account the consensus of world opinion is disinclined to expect from Japan of excessively apologetic response to the present efforts at clearing up a dangerously fluid situation, Nor would practical statesmen press principles to. an unworkable pitch. The crisis demands clear consideration of the adequacy of Japanese policy to maintain, mong the nations interester the Far East, those fundament doctrines which are essential to international ce-operation. that point Count Uchida British Government would deserve credit for commonsense or /statesmanship if it coun.enanced or took the lead in forcible coercion of Japan over the Manchurian issue. There may be extreme "pacifist" who would counsel so flagrant a neglect lof the interests of a stricken world; they count for little and their influence, judging from the cabled summary, does not appear the pronouncement made on Saturday by the Archbishop of York and other men of acknowledged eminence with reference to the problem before the vague. This journal has consistently pointed out, from almost the first moment of Geneva's discussion of the upheaval in Mukden, that the impracticability of the "sanetions" clauses in the Covenant had been exposed. It is argument to urge that this hi been due to the exceptional economic conditions prevailing the world. Those very conditions were, as events have proved, the pre-determining factors in Japan's desperate decision. Lord Ponsonby, to take a statesman who represents the school of thought which champions the League most vigorously, has agreed with Sir John Simon that conciliation is the League's true instrument. Sir Eric Drummond's formula being conceived on those principles. It cannot be expected to lelia the lightning's wings. It does go far to vindicate the creed for which the League stands. It enables the League to make this Sino-Japanese crisis a lesson for guidance rather than a crowning proof of its futility. Tt, keeps the Lytton Report within the Jeompass of the League's action, although delay is still inevitably invited, Practienl notice taken of realities without permitting realities to. destroy the deeper and immanent principles upon which the faith of huma ity ultimately rests. Yet it is amazing to note the kind of fustian with which journals like the "Morning Post," the "Daily Mail" and the "Daily Express" find it necessary to enforce th point of view. They seem to create a bogey of what they call sentimentalism—a commodity usually cherished by them as part of their stock-in-trade—and then affect to believe that it has bewitched the statesmen heavily charged to direct the course of ithe League at Geneva.
If anything can be calculated to defeat the League and to make Sir John'Simon's task more difficult it is this inverted jingoism of the British popular press. The "Morning Post" is on its own confession, the acknowledged exponent of lost causes. Its handling of Eastern admirably justified over period of many years. Its lofty disdain of jsentimentalism is truly comic for no journal has exploited that dubious quality with greater disregard ani As for the menacing shades Express," their diurnal wallowing in the cheap emotions of the gallery and bargain sale counter has been a constant theme of pained amusement ever since they discovered the existence of the "flapper" and the superior intellect of the titled reporter.
When, in the exuberance of its newly-found affection for -restraint, the "Daily Mail" calls upon the League to remind-China of the necessity for securing peace in the Far East and fulfilling the obligations of a ised state," the temptation "sto ask whether the wrong address-book has slipped into the bookshelf of the leader-writer is irresistible. Civilisation be responsible for the alarums ang excursions in the North. It needed the perspicacity of the "Daily Mail" to bring that stimulating thought light. The "Daily Express, which plumes itself on being the jonly real Empire "crusader, is righteously indignant at the idea that Great Britain should "inter. fore" by attempting to assist pacification in the Far Eas This is certainly enforcing the doctrine of Empire exclusiveness with fanatical fervour. gloriously ignores the difference between peace-making and fill-{bustering. And, to come down to the sordid problem of trade without the Empire which must be mentioned to Lord Beaverbrook with the deepest apologies it nobly jettisons consideration for British commercial interests, in the Far East.
This ingenuity in setting up ninepins for the purpose of knocking them down is a pathetically feeble camouflage. It follows the familiar line of salving what pass for consciences by harping on the enormity of the weaker party in supreme neglect of the significance of the actions of the stronger. Solicitude for the peace of the world clearly points to the need for maintaining friendship with Japan, That is not furthered by josing the respect of China, No Chinese statesman, with any knowledge of current affairs and imbued—by bitter personal experience—with a sense of the horrors of internecine warfare, expects the other members of the League to throw down, jointly or severally, the gauntlet to Japan. He must expect, however, that British policy should adhere to the principles which it ha endeavoured, long before the League came into existence, to follow with some degree of consistency. Ata time when the British nation has given proof fidelity to contracts, jerable risk to its financial stability, when the British Go ernment, in dealing with a unilateral repudiation of a contract by a weaker nation, is placidly pursuing the path of conciliation through the League, when the British Parliament is, about to honour its pledges by a further development of the greatest constitutional adventure ever known to the East, it is regrettable to find organs of British opinion in so. sorry a state of demoralized sdejection. It is fortunate that at the helm of British affairs are men like Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Baldwin and Sir John Simon who, sensible are politically nurtured belief in the realities of good ith. On those realities the day-to-day existence of every: British citizen, even the "Daily Mail," vitally' depends. It is because there has been a breach in that good faith on both sides that the present Sino-Japanese crisis has arisen to vex the world. The path of the peacemaker does not lie along condemnation of one or the other; nor does it lie in craven retreat. The object of the statesmen in the League must be to tender their good offices for the extrica. tion of both China and Japan from a deadly coil. No purpose is served by pressing home assessment oF apportionment of blame. Recognition of the fact that circumstances have been too strong for human frailty in each is sufficient. The process of recovering the initiative for elution may be still long but of its ultimate achievement there can be no doubt. It can be hastenea only by quiet, unruffled wisdom, not by" vehement onslaught on shadows.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.