May 11.
When all the facts are considered it is easy to understand why 1935 is looked forward to with such misgivings for it will undoubtedly be a year of crises which will require the {adroltest possible handling. Attempts to reach some "agreement with regard to disarmament have failed up to the present, and though last effort is to be made to save something out of the wreck he would be an optimist indeed who would expect any successful issue therefrom. Next year there will be the naval conference to present its own difficult problems with Japan claiming parity with the navies of Joming.. But the League itself has to it ace its own domestic problem involved in a decision as to what shal ibe its role in the future. One school lof thought is strongly in favour of overhauling the whole of the-[League's mechanism to make it the institution which it was originally untended it should be, or else scrap once and for all. It favours over-looming inherent weaknesses by working towards the securing of ithe United States and Russia as members and the retention of both Japan and Germany within its [ranks tsroadening the principles and working of the League in such a Imanner as to ensure that less emphasis shall be placed on European affairs, and more attention paid to general problems affecting the whole of the world. Against that opinion is set the other which would be satisfied with an organization including only European nauons and dealing only with questions affecting that continent. These people are dubbed the "realists," who are perfectly willing to admit that the League was created solely for the purpose of enforcing the Versailles Trealy and that this should remain its primary task, It is a type of realism which is most unhappy in its implications, and sts value is and will continue to be denied so long as so important a European Power as Germany feels herself bourd.to remain outside its The problem to be presented to the world next year is not merely whether the League shall continue lor disappear in a cloud of bitter disappointment, but whether this present civilization is to survive or sink in a welter of hostility. The picture of what may happen should ithe statesmen of the world fail to lind satisfactory solutions to the problems which are being posed is sufficient to make the observer shudder with apprehension, At the moment humanity seems to be dominated by a monster of its own creation; not a creature which it desired to fashion but one the making of which has been forced jupon it by circumstances which appear to have been entirely beyond its control. The test will be then between a system which may [proceed from horror to horror and ithe unfortunate creators of it, It thas been rightly said that the pro-
Manchoukwo' terviiry of Opiumor of doing the gravest possible harm ake drugs should. not to the people, and not only willing Seprantel untos "the applicant to. permit but actively assisting the Prodices'an import ccertieate in evil. process, The " responsibility Eecordance with the Convention of cannot lightly be thrust aside. by Such a nature as to walisty the any suggestion that it lies. solely Government to which appliertion is TY suggestion that it lies, solely been increasing at a rate calculated jt@_give everybody considerable anxiety.
It is the same celerity considerable time past has subjected those people, unfortunate enough to have to use the Great Britain and the United States, the Saar plebiscite may be expected to complicate matters in Europe and ito strain further the relations between France and. Germany no matter which way the voting goes, trams and omnibuses, to a di lagree while Germany and Japan will blems with which the world has [been confronted since the last war have assumed such magnitude that it passes the wit of man to solve them. That may not yet be true. But the discovery of the most effective answers to the questions made that the goods in question were not to be imported into Manchoukuo territory for a purpose which is contrary to the Convention. A' copy of the export aus thorization should accompany the consignment, but Governments should refrain from forwarding a Second copy of the export authoriza~ tion to manchoukuo since such action might be interpreted as a de facto recognition of Manchoukwo, It will be noticed that this bugbear of "de facto" recognition was operating in the minds of the Advisory Committee, though it was Pointed out recently that there could never be any such thing, in view of the the fact that recognition is a juridical act.
The neat point was taken by Mr. Fuller, the American representative, that, as long as Manchuria was, regarded as part of China, export of opium to it was forbidden by the Hague Convention of 1912. The Convention provided that opium might only be exported to countries where smoking was permitted, and was pointed out that it" was legally forbidden in China and also that drugs could only be exported to importers holding a government licence, which it was obvious could not be obtained by Manchoukuo importers from the Chinese Government, the only authority in the eyes of the League of Nations which could issue them if it had wished to do so. 'The point: was met on November 3, 1933, when the 'Advisory Committee' indicated the necessity of obtaining more information on the existence of the illicit traffic in drugs in Manchoukuo, and, in the meantime recommended' that, "For the moment, at any rate it would be desirable that the attention of the chief producing and manufacturing countries should be drawn to the necessity of supervising most strictly any application for the introduction of nar-cetics into the territory." That, appears to be just about as far as the League can go. Tt is apparent that, with Japan no longer a member, and Manchoukuo neither seek-government because that being Under Japanese control inthe manner it is cannot be held to. be Independent entity. The danger to China ites serious, While it has to be admitted that this country producing quantities of opium of almost unbelievable dimensions and conducting an internal traffic of a size to which interior correspondents this paper from time to time draw attention, the situation of a State on its borders legally encouraging the traffic and a base for the smuggling of these goods into it, constitutes a. considerable aggravation of an exceptionally distressing position. "At. the moment there is little prospect of better~ iment, indeed, there is every chance the matter assuming an even worse complexion than It does present, and though no immediate remedy appears in sight it is, perhaps. just as well that universal attention should be drawn to the alarming state of aff lexists in this connection. which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.