Captain Eden's reply in the House of Commons to the que tion on the Round Table Conference seem expressly—to that the holding of such a conference was comprised in the Plan announced by the Council of the League of Nations on February 29. This journal's interpretation of that plan is thus rejected, although it must be confessed that Captain Eden's reply is hardly consistent. with the Council's recommendation for the immediate setting up of the Conference. For, on the main ie, Captain Eden supports the' views which the "North-China Daily News' has consistently put forward to the effect that China's participation is essential to the arrangement of such a conference and that the resolutions of the Assembly of the League would govern the proceedings, Lnaving aside the question of the authority for holding a Round Table Confe1 ence—it is really academic will be seen that no objection to. it is seriously held, so long as Chinese consent can be secured. At the moment the chief obstacles lie in the uncertainty prevailing in Nanking and the difficulty of treating Shanghai as a question apart from events in Manchuria—on- which the Lytton Commission will have to report in September. It is important,
Assembly are to be applied in the principles of the League accordance with the assurance given by Captain Eden, that the Conference should be' independent of action taken by the Japanese in January and February last, It is equally import ant that it should be assem! on the broadest possible basis and without restrictions imposed by the specific citation of certain remedies or defects for which remedies are indicated or implied.
Captain Eden's reply should go far to reassure Chinese apprehensions on this point. Although Japanese initiation is admitted, the Conference cannot possibly come into existence without the express approval of the League on the Council of which China sits, It may also be gathered that, as consideration of the agenda has not been taken in hand, the original idea of making the'summoning of the Conference an immediate care of the nations concerned has been modified. As this journal has pointed out the preoccupation of the Powers over Europe and the need for enlightenment on the terms of the Lytton Report will make for delay. This delay will be of value in itself. It will give the situation here a longer time for developing the restoration of normality. It will weaken the unhappy impressions perceive that a resolution, however admirable in itself cannot be considered apart from the preamble attached to it. The preamble, although revealed by unauthorised publication and, presumably therefore, open to revision or cancellation, created false impression which it will take much to dissipate. While there apparently is not the slightest justification for the: suggestion—aot made in these lcolumns—that any representative foreign body has framed or endorsed any scheme for the future constitution of Shanghai, the association of at least one passage in that preamble with certain aspects of schemes, unofficially mooted but bearing a. close family resemblance to a Japanese pronouncement in the midst of the crisis, created understandable diffidence in Chinese minds. It is to be hoped that' Captain Eden's statement will enable all parties to sta afresh. The Round Table Conference idea is approved—in principle. The time and manner of its being brought into existence have yet to be determined. Whether it will deal with Shai hai alone or with Sino-Foreign relations generally is not clear. On the face of it and in view of present Chinese opinions, would seem that the more comprehensive terms of reference Ibe necessary. 'Those who jate chiefly "concerned with Shanghai will no doubt. bear in mind the fact that the Shanghai problem is intimately connected with the whole problem of Chinese administration. Shanghai' cannot expect to save itself—if. there is anything from which it has to seek salvation—at the expense of the rest of China. prosperity is not self-supporting, depends on its links with China; it is China in fact, On the other hand Chinese critics in particular cannot afford—to ignore the physical factor of growth, "Shanghai's growth may have induced the development of acute political problems; it cannot be tied to a procrustean bed on that account, That is why Round Table Conference, con vened with due regard to the|Th loceasion and, in its first stages, exploratory rather than mandatory, has the general support of many sections of opinion. All that is necessary to reduce conlfroversy on the subject to manageable proportions ay proper attention to the need for spadework, to recognise the vial as well as the political facts of the problem and to dis-societe what must be an ad-[venture in ce-operation from the embarrassing aberrations of the near past. Captain Eden summed up the position in his emphasis on Chinese participation. That was, in itself, an implicit denial of the doctrine that China area ly pledged to the Conference. It was, too, a truism of value: the essential quality of a Round Table is that round it there gather, willingly and representatively, all who are interested in its deliberations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.