Aug. 2.
To this journal today M. William Martin contributes a special article on the situation in the Far East in the light of his own extensive knowledge of the reactions of Geneva to Far Eastern affairs and his brief but very fully occupied visit to. this eotintry. M, Martin is a European journalist with strong Liberal' views and a reputation for exceptional gifts of judgment combined with a discriminating enthusiasm for the principles on-which the League of Nations has been founded. He, therefore, speaks with considerable author ity when he asserts that. the events of the last. eighteen months in the Far East have been of vital importance to Western civilisation. It i, 80 often asserted that the polities the Far East are not suitable for assessment in Geneva that M. Martin's direct traversal of {hat theory ly especially interest, ing. He makes his point well, It is, that, the development of the Manchurian situation shown Europe that them chinery established under the Covenant was unable to function with the completeness desired, The effect of that on European politics is of the first importance in that it raised apprehensions of the encouragement which it would give to unruly govern ments, "of which, remarks M. Martin, sardonically, some even in. Europe further and points out that the peace of Europe is, vital to the peace of the Far East, particular, for the foreign communities of this country. So in defending its own Covenant the League of Nations was working not merely in the interests of China but, in fact, in the me forests of Europe itself and of Europeans wherever they are found, Students of European opinion to-day cannot help being struck with the remarkable been vehemently only by the handling of Dollcies but by orities whos
break off the connection of Great main object is, undoubtally, to Britain and also of other nations with the League. Paradoxically, therefore, the League, faced with the most, serious cri ite existence, has impressed itself more foretbly than ever upon the world.
Looking to the future, and especially to the technical colla-oration between China ang the League, M. Martin says that it ig the expression of a real alliance of the world with China. thoughtful revi to the impact of Western civills tion on a unwilling China in the nineteenth century and, eventually, to the revolution of 1911, shows that he ig fully convince: of the inevitability of Si Foreign ce-operation. The posi tion here is, in his view, one of the greatest dramatic interest. This period in China is comparable in Western history with that of the Renaissance in Burope and it may bring as important and far-reaching consequences in its train. Tt is natural that the philosopher-journalist—for that, in effect, is what M, Martin's article shows him to be—should look upon current problems with a Yarger vision than those who are actually caught up in the day-to-day manifestations of those problems. At the same time, it would be well if something of M. Martin's. philosophy could be communicated to a good deal of what passes here for public opinion. It has often been remarked' that views on events in [China are pinned down to names, personalities, and tragedies. [And yet the politician who persistently asking what Mr. Gladstone said in 1884 gets no hearing in England, nor is it ikely that his counterpart in other European or American lcountiies is any luckier. Yet so cloften the writer of an article on Chinese affairs is enabled to evade his obligations to consider Hogically developments of reason-Jed argument by the mere recital Jof dates, names and facile Not the least important point which M. William Martin makes is the emphasis on the disappear-lance from Europe of pre-war [conditions and the non-recogni tion of that disappearance by Europeans who, perhaps, for two lor three decades have cast in their lot with China. M. Martin says that in talking with Shangfhailanders he has often felt they are comparing the China of today with prewar Europe. [Without going all the way with M. Martin in. his pessimism on ithe decadence of European morals, it is possible to support his vie far as it implies the radical change in the genera outlook of the West. It is very natural that a community out off from its mother country for a considerable period of time should be slow in adapting itself the "changes which loceurred in the motherland behind. This is a commonplace of colonial history whether—in Canada, Australia or Indo-China, IM. Martin's article suggests to the discerning reader that. the emphasis so often laid on long experience of China as a qualification for assessing China's current problems should least be countered by the contention that an up-to-date knowledge of European conditions is essential to any foreigner who desires to form an accurate Jopinion on the course of Chinese levants and Chinese administration the Progress of is {for this reason that the clearing house of natio fand a8 the arena in which re-Ipresontative personalities are ted, can play a forceful part Hin improving the mutual understanding of nations, As the Jworld "to-day develops, the popular demand for education seems curiously to neglect that side of construction which is {far more important than another to the peace and security of a people. Misunderstanding of the Jactual facts of a neighbouring country is almost a crime. [Serious attempts to prevent it jate duly made, but it must be leonfessed that far too much influence in this respect lies in the hands of men and women with especial bias which does not always help in producing the necessary balance of judgment. Tt is to be hoped that Geneva will bear that fact in mind and it develops its own technique Jand its own usefulness to the nations it will from time to time closely scrutinize its personnel land its textbooks to make sure that due weight is given currents of opinion which, although possibly hostile in the main to some of the principles for which the League stands, complaisance—_ and, draw, stimulating action,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.