One remote State has, indeed, officially though obscurely, recognized the illegal organization in the north-east of China, even though the State itself has scarcely any direct contact with the affairs of eastern Asia, The circumstances of the re-munition, as Ihave said, remain obscure. "From China's standpoint asa Member of the League, she con-Siders such action inconsistent with the Covenant, a proper matter for League review and discipline, and believes that no other Member State will ever in like manner disregard International justice and violate the findings of q Unanimous report and. fis own solemn obligations. under that report. Treating this isolated instance as practically negligible, however theoretically serious, it is very great thing that the judgment of the League has opt inviolate, inthe face of opportunistic Invitations to act otherwise. We Chinese are not unaware of the efforts to encourage a certain vague-ress and uncertainty here and there the 'Assembly report through threatening them' with economic penallties and trouble for their consuls in 'Manchura if they do not recognize the egal regime in that part of China, and by efforts to bribe them with ' specious " offers "of special' economic advantages if they" will succumb.
Special Concessions In this connection it may be recalled that the Assembly report contains not only the obligation to refrain de jure oF de facto recognition but from anything that might facilitate the maintenance of the' present illegal regime, 'The assembly Advisory Committee in interpret ing this obligation pointed out that protection could be afforded by. Governments. to their' nationals seeking concessions at the hands of this illegal regime, which in international Jaw is committing high treason in disposing of Chinese State property. Clearly no claim based On such acts of exploitation can be recognized by China or by any other State bound by the Assembly report. It is equally clear that holders of concessions granted treaty-breaking authorities in. Manchuria would render themselves able to prosecution for damages by. the Chinese Government before the courts of any country bound by the Assembly Report.
The Second Point The second point T wish to make 4s that the League has a continuing responsibility in this matter. This responsibility s growing continually heavier with the. increasing. tension and menace to peace in the Far East. It cannot be affected by the refusal of "any State to attend at Geneva, For the Covenant says that a State cannot cease to be u Member of the: League until all its international, obligations have been fulfilled. That no accidental provision—it is a vital and fundamental obligation. The League as an instrument of peace would be a broken reed it a State could break the Covenant and then escape the consequences withdrawing from the League. 'The 'Assembly has emphatically "declared that the present military occupation of Manchuria is a violation of the Covenant, the Nine Power' Treaty and the Paris Pact. It is for the Assembly, as the guardian of the League's" honour, to draw the obvious conclusion from its own declaration and from the provisions of the Covenant to which T have just alluded.
Third and Chief Point The third and most important point to which T wish to call your attention is the spreading con Sequences to, the whole world of the continuance of treaty-breaking aggression in the Far East. In its report condemning and fixing the responsibility for that aggression, the Assembly pointed out that the continuance of the present regime in Manchuria was incompatible with the maintenance of peace in the Far East.
The Lytton Report pointed out that no regime that had no secured the willing ce-operation of the
Gould restore order and prosperity Chinese population in Manchuria to that part of China, and added that the population was resolutely hostile to what it rightly regarded alien military dictatorship established by fraud and aggression. Events have unhappily proved how
this view of the situation created by Fight the was to adopt"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.