Whatever indecision may have existed at Geneva in the early past of the alarums caused by the outbreak of hostilities in Ethiopia, seems 10 have been speedily rectified by the official announcement from General De Bone. There should be no dif. culty in establishing the identity of the aggressor and the officials of the League Secretariat will surely not have to expend a great deal of energy research on that aspect of the crisis. Disentangling the various reports received, it may be surmised that the Council of the League will proceed to name the aggressor and thus facilitate the operation of Art-lolo XVE The decisions taken on that issue will then depend on the negotiations among the various members fof the League—and perhaps on quiries of non-Member nations—regarding the application of sanctions. The League's machinery will now be moved with the object of asserting the principles of the Covenant. The movement must be deliberate and it improbable that. anything like swift action will be attempted: The war-maker has over the peace-maker the advantage of irresponsible. free-Jdom. And it is still by no means clear that the application of sanctions will be formally approved by the League. thing more than the operation of charitable relief, vital though that, be and immediate its demands.
Even when this depression has shot, its bolt and Shanghai resumes— as it must resume—its normal progression to prosperity, it is open to doubt whether the labour market here will maintain the charader so ong favourable to foreign applicants. The change chiefly affects the Shanghai-born foreigner who would not naturally look outside this city for his or her livelihood. In occupations to which in the past. the foreigner has been able to turn confidence, there will be an ever-increasing tendency to employ Chinese tatent, as the result of the development of Chinese education in western activities. The course of current events shows too that the European or American Shanghailander will meet severe competition from the expanding population imported from Japan. Resentment at this change is sterile and, indeed, unjustified. The plain necessity to take it seriously into account, to review its economic significance jand to adjust educational programmes and budgets accordingly. this matter the foreign community. should have definite guidance from those who profess to lead it. As has been consistently urged in these columns for the last two years, a real effort should be made to obtain an authoritative survey of the position if the problem of the "poor: foreigner" as known to Russians in. Harbin and Shanghai, is not to be tragically extended to the other Western communities here. Meanwhile the King's Daughters' Society can rightly that this new development imposes all the more stringent obligations on Shanghai to give the collection to-morrow the maximum—encouragement and practical support. Tt would befit Shanghai's grasp of realities if, when the day were over, a record figure of achievement could be announced by the Society,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.