Lord Lytton has quickly sensed some of the misapprehensions which persist here regarding the League of Nations. He has no less acutely perceived the confusion of thought to which those misapprehensions give rise, China cannot be solely blamed for flamboyant assertions which seem to convey the notion that some kind of judgment has to be passed: on one side or the other. Moreover China—and particular ly the angry critics of the League in China—have failed to realise that the displays of oratory to [which Geneva is bound to submit represent neither the basis of the League's judgment nor the hig! Jest wisdom of the delegates there Jazsembled. One day means will' be found to overcome that basi Maw in the League's publicity in the meantime it is pertinent to note that the League, of which the Commission headed by Lord Lytton is an agent, is concerned more with pointinis the international reconciliation ther than with passing zat cial pronouncements. "The Lo does not work lof stating a contest at the end lof whicl ill be possible to say that one side has lost, the Jother won, so that respective supporters can throw up their sponges or their hats accordingly. This might be noted by those correspondents who are taking the opportunity to bring to notice controversial issues to which, rightly or wrongly, they consider the application of belated justice might be salutary. Justice is a quality easily invoked but not so easily dispensed in this wicked world, The difficulty is all the greater because, $0 often, one man's justice is' the other man's poison.
Or, to put it in another way, to many, justice is the com-replete endorsement of their own views and the summary rejection fof those in opposition. These points will no doubt be borne i mind by those who have to pro-Jduce evidence for the Commission. Lord Lytton has made it clear that impassioned propa-gaudists from whatever quarter batter their heads in vain against the solid wall of his Cor mission's realism, that anyone who neglects to adhere strictly facts. dispassionately arrayed I only have himself ly blame: if he fails to make what he cor siders ix the right impression.
Even more important perhaps ig the emphasis laid by the Chairman on the need for exorcising hi red from discussion of This well be drawn. often. thought—not without son—that, had it not bee the assiduous efforts made during the last few months to lenforee arguments by appeals to racial prejudice, much of the present trouble could have been avoided. This can be said with-lout assigning exclusive blame to lone particular quarter. For hatred breeds hatred. It may be asserted, for example, thet "an foreignism," however, originally generated, cannot stand by itself alone. It has to be stimulated a counter-irritant. During: the recent troubles it has been [shown. either by one side or the other. that a certain set of facts, themselves established beyond san be used to reinforce diametrically opposed indict~ ments. Attempts to temper just feritieism with equally just Feleognition of points in favour of jo have been deprecated as provocative or unduly, flattering. Propaganda has been accepted unquestioningly us if the few truths which it enshrined had leavened the whole lump; counter-propaganda has been rejected regardless of the fact that it may have contained a modicum lof veracity. When controversies Ihave so developed in an interna.
ional atmosphere, a truly unhealthy state has been reached.
That is why the remedial in-Auences of the League Commission have before them so great 2 scope here, Shanghai is euffering under a great disaster. It is futile, at the moment at all Jevents, to dilate on the causes immediately creating it. The at-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.