Geneva, Sept. 9 A weak League of Nations affords no excuse for signatories of the Nine Power Treaty to adopt a passive policy in Japan's latest aggression in China, writes M. Paul Boncour, French permanent delegate to Geneva, in an article published in the "Journal des Nations" to-day.
Entitled "War Perspectives in China", the article points out that the present war has not been declared but is being waged by Japan on the pretext of protecting frontiers and annihilating "dangerous propaganda" in the Far East.
There is not the slightest doubt about the identity of the aggressor, M. Boncour says, but he regrets to rote that the attitude of the Great Powers is still not clear.
The League of Nations has become very much weakened and is powerless to help China following its failure to prevent Italian occupation of, Abyssinia and the war in Spain, but that is no reason for the Powers to be passive in their attitude toward the Far East, the article says.
The present passive policy of the signatories of the Nine Power Treaty, apart from China and Japan, will eventually endanger the equilibrium. in both Asia and Europe and the present war in China may prove to be the starting point of another world war, the French statesman says.
For the foreign Powers concerned to protect their business interests in Shanghai is "not sufficient, it is pointed out in the article, and any policy making no distinction between the aggressor and the victim and justifying itself on non-partiality or neutrality is hypocritical, In conclusion, M. Paul Boncour expresses his confidence in China's determination to rely on her own strong armies to defend her liberty and independence—Central News
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.