In its present frame of r ind the Japanese Government has seen fit to reply to the] second invitation from Brussels in terms which are emphatic compromise. It has met a courteous but and leave no room for firm recapitulation of the facts of the Sino-Japanese crisis and a reasoned exposure of the realities of the situation. Japanese critics are already dismissing the Powers' arguments as academic and claiming that the realities are to be found in the presence of powerful Japanese armies in possession of vast portions of Chinese soil. The Brussels Conference does not fail to note that concrete manifestation of Japanese policy, but it draws therefrom different deductions.
International anarchy must result from condonation of such a cynical exercise of armed might in carefully judged circumstances which have disposed Japan to believe that her actions cannot be checked by the rest of a pre-occupied world. Japan's sertion that the issue is solely between r and China is torn to shreds Cly the irrefutable contention that the present conflict has involved third parties in grave damage! to life and property. It is also shown beyond any possibility of misunderstanding that the attack on China has raised the ye issue with which the Nine Power Treaty signatories are explicitly concerned. Italy alone dissents. That championship of Japan is worth as much as the doctrine of inter-this winter with an.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.