The "Austral-Asiatic Bulletin" in its second issue has a lively series of articles with the object of carrying out its declared purpose of facilitate ing the study of "international problems", For success it really must endeavour to get its facts right, especially when they concern fundamental issues. Mr. E. L, Piesse contributes a criticism of Mr. Lyons' recent definition of Australia defence Policy and takes issue with its mention of the League of Nations as one of the three "ramparts" of Australia's security, With that aspect of Mr.
anguish an outsider has little It is obviously a matter of interna) polemics and may be left there. But a little outside correction becomes necessary when Mr. Piesse makes his assertion The League has played no part in the Pacific, except to infuriate by a proposal of intervention the only country with which there is a pas sibility of our "having a serious difference—and can. anyone expect that in the early future it can play any part that will help us? wish to think of things as they are and as they matter, we had better not waste lime on the League.
Since Mr. Piesse so rightly insists on thinking of "things as they are" it may not be amiss once again to recall the fact that the Lytton Commission was appointed to "intervene" in the Manchurian affairs on the direct proposal of the Japanese representative at Geneva. The League may be criticized for not moving quickly enough when China made her appeal ju September 1931, but the intervention took the form as proposed by the very nation. which was "infuriated" by it according to Mr. Fiesse. It is quite true that when ihe Commission arrived in the Far Fast, Japanese policy had suffered a sea-change but Geneva could hardly be blamed for that, Moreover, the Lytton Report is universally admitted to have been a masterly document of impartiality and ' practical com-nonsense, There again the League could not be blamed because it still is in the pigeon-hole. Japan's present problem in Manchuria and North China would be far simpler if she could have seen her way to waive preconceived prejudices and accepted that document as a basis for solution, Nor is it inopportune to remind Mr. Piesse that the failure of-the member-states to stand by. the Covenant ever the Manchurian issue is now perceived to have been the direct cause of the disastrous European breakdown which led to Germany's withdrawal from the League, Italy's defiance of it in Abyssinia and the acute anxieties over rearmament presently confronting Empire and Australian statesmen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.