'The British and Italian delegates have steadied the debate at Geneva, Baron Aloisi like Sir John Simon, insists on realities and' on the guidance of the Lytton Report. Precipitate action which would base accusatory decisions on the Commi findings ignores the Report's emphasis on the paramount importance of finding a solution rather than passing judgment. It is significant that no speaker, ven on the Chinese side, has Suggested that the.status quo unto can be restored. That, in itself, makes the mere process of sitting in judgment sterile. Sir John Simon, at the outs gave the key by quoting that effective passage which expound. ed the Lytton Commission's view of the impossibility of reducing the Manchurian problem to a simple equation. On the one side the Commission found errors giving rise to conditions which led to errors on the other. The attitude of measured eriticism naturally develops from the policy of the "middle roa to which the British Government has consistently held. Sir John long ago declared in favour of Keeping the scales even. That is the only possible course, especially when the two principals are still far apart. Specially gratitying is Sir John's strong tribute to the power of the League the moulder of world-opinion. He has pointed out that the League rests on the support given to it by its own members and support does not lie along the lines of accentuating antagonisms within its ranks, Not the least tribute to the value of the League has been the completeness with which both China and Japan have ce-operated with it, Mr, Matsuoka, on his side, has had to contend with elements which would invoke a counsel of despair and cast the dist of Geneva from off the feet of Japan, His attitude of reliance on the League is not a new-born product of recent conversations in Geneva. Short. ly before his departure for Europe, he definitely wrote that it was more fitting for Japan to do her best to gain the understanding of other nations thi talk of withdrawal from the Lepgue. And the process of understanding is reciprocal.
Ghina has everything to gain from the policy of caution implied in reference of the prob-Jem to the Committee of Nineteen. The direct refusal to pass judgment affects -her as much "as Japan, Taking the Lytton Report as_a whole it would be quite' impossible to place on record condemnation of Japan's action of September 18, 1981 and its train of consequences without similarly noting the defects of Chinese administration and the illegalities of jhe boycott movement. Summing up the situation just over year ago, this journal pointed out that,' but for the military putsch, Japan had.an unanswerable case to present to the world. That view has been consistently upheld by exponents of the "middle read" policy and has been endorsed by the Lytton Report's findings. So if reference to the Committee of Nineteen is made on the lines of the resolution submitted by Switzerland and Creche-Slovakia—in preference to the longer one which seems to frame an indictment of Jo neither side can have qualms about ce-operating. The recently intensified efforts to make di organisation in China the ex-
80 far as they are relevant to discussion of an ultimate rap-Prochement between the two countries. Sir John Simon's Powerful speech has adjusted the League's position to the actrialities of this Far Eastern Problem with a delicate yet unerring discrimination. Sup-Porters of the League have reason to be heartened. The whole trend of the debate, with its oblique yet pregnant references to other vital problems within the League's present cognisance, shows how firmly the nations, great and small, are clinging to the lifeline established by the sacrifices and suffering- of the Great War and its calamitous aftermath. The German delega ate's speech afforded a striking example of this tendency. Thus the League, travelling through the period of adolescence, learns that its functions transcend the delivery of abstract judgment and are carried to the plane on which constructive work is done for the solution of dynamic problems. Nothing can be static where the evolution of forces is at issue. With that thought in mind the Assembly will do well to persevere in the vein of measured criticism, leaving to the historian in the future the task of passing judgment.
Whether it will be necessary for the Assembly even formally to refuse recognition to Manchu-Kuo must be doubted. The ref-. erence to the Committee of Nineteen should be in the broadest possible terms for the first task will be to induce the two principals to come to the door of the conference. The Lytton Report has made the position of Manchukuo clear. Adoption of the Report would case, clearly indicated the far-reaching character of the issues raised. Japanese troops are now almost on the Frontier of Soviet Russia, There is said to be a good understanding between the two countries. It were idle, however, to ignore the mutterings in the Japanese press at Harbin, the known fundamentals of long-standing Russian policy in the East and the fact that defence of Japanese actions has been based by some on the danger of leaving a weak Chinese administration to the mercy of possible developments from the Russian border. It is therefore interesting to note that, although he had come straight" from making Severe representations to the Soviet Ambassador in London, Sir John Simon urged the inelusion of Russia, as well as the United States of America, in the deliberations of the Committee of Nineteen, The Soviet Government has ce-operated with the League in the discussions on Disarmament. It refused to tend that countenance to the Lytton Commission. It may be inclined, in the light of events and the general tenor of the Assembly's debate, to view the present suggestion with favour. Reference to natural forces in evolution must plainly comprise account of the close associations of Russia with Manchurian history. It is not possible for any concert of nations, by taking thought, to provide for every eventuality in the distant future. Yet, as the Lytton Report points, out, riy solution of the problem of Manchuria which ignored the important interests of the U-S.S.R.
would risk a future breach of the peace and would not be permanent."
The tripartite agreement to which the Report looks may be a long way off. That should not deter the League from securing the ce-operation of Russia at: this early stage. For here, in the key to solution The ter change of recrimination pertinent only to the purely ephemeral aspects of the events involved. Beyond that the Lea gue and its members must look to the basic obligation of finding other. Their destinies. are inextricably entwined. Their present estrangement cannot persist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.