March 12.
Shanghai, upon which the effect of th? past month's hostilities has yet to be fully appreciate edi undoubtedly read with relief the news printed in yesterday's fa sue of the.""North-China Daily News" that the movement towards peace had made further progress: It is still a little early to judge how Yar the indications given by both parties of their willingness to proceed to negotiation will be transformed into Something more substantial, for there is still evidence of an. amount of mutual distrust athich will have to be removed before concrete results are to he obtained from the present developments. It will be. remembered that on March 4 the League "Assembly passed a resolution in the following terms:—
"That the, Assembly, recalling the "Council's resolution February 28 and other measures which have been contemplated:
(1) Iavites the Governments of China and Japan to. take. immediately' the necessary steps to assure the effective execution of the orders "given by the com manders of both forces for the Sessation of hostilities (2) To inform the Assembly of the conditions on Which. the" invitation formulated in paragraph has been carried of Chinese reply to the Japanese Jcommunieation that they insisted, Jon their reservation that the withdrawal should be unconditional, while the Japanese have made "no wider offer for the Jopening of negotiations than is aid down in the resolution. There is, then, between the Jorginal Japanese communication fand the Chinese reply just as much divergence as there was between the respective attitudes lof their delegates at Geneva, and ito secure a local meeting of the minds on this matter will call for the display of a high degree Jof forbearance on either side, 'The Assembly's resolution in paragraph 2 recognises the possible existence of conditions for it desires, the disputants to in= form the Assembly of the con us on which the invitation con. tained in paragraph 1 has been Jearried: out,' so that the local issue is-between the view that {the resolution foreshadowed the possibility of a conditional with-[drawal upon the oe hand, while [the Chinese continue to insist upon its unconditional nature. The obstacle may not be in-Jsurmountable, but it is difficult believe that any real progress will be made unless there is some degree of moderation on both sides. An unconditional Japanese withdrawal, in the light of events, Jcould hardly be regarded a3 compatible with the representations made by Japan to Geneva, It Imay be questioned whether Chin-lose views are not capable of re-Jcognition, considering the actual military ' position, without employing a qualification so susceptible of misunderstanding either side. It would seem that there is every reason to hope for Jo continued cessation from hostilities. On the Japanese side ground exists for guarding against the recurrence of difficulties They can derive much encouragement from the circumstance that, even now, the authority of; the League is' being applied in [conditions of exceptional difficulty and that to the League the Far East is looking for guidance in the present bewilderment.
In order that there should Ino misapprehension regarding the Commission's task it may be well to recall the fact that by the Council's resolution of December 10, 1931, it has to "Study on the spot and to re-report to the Council on any circumstance which, affecting international relations, threatens
ina and Japan, or the disturb the "peace between Sinderstandin "between sem, upon which peace depen No one will suppose that material for the prosecution of such an inquiry will be lacking. The Commission, it may be suspect-fed, has already realised that its difficulty will lie in the selection and sifting rather than the collection of data. Its Chairman, born in the East, albeit in the bracing Himalayan pine-kissed coolness, and, returning there in manhood to govern a Province in which the intellectual agility of ithe Bengali mind is at once the despair and the admiration of the West, knows what it is to search diligently for facts amid the dense undergrowth of a luxury lant forest of phrases and figures of speech. His companions in adventure are no less well-equipped, though none among them can perchance claim as. grandfather a famous novelist, as father a former Viceroy of India and as son a Member of. Parliament who is famous in the boxing-ring. Lord Lytton has before now won laurels at Geneva. It is hoped that he and his Commission will win more of, them i@ Manchuria, (3) Recommends that negotia-which helped to precipitate the tions should te undertaken by the original crisis. The Chinese Japanese and Chinese reprerentainterpretation of the demand for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.