The mass meeting in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to pass resolutions condemning Japanese aggression in China, and to support proposals for a boycott of Japanese goods, seems to have been turned into a communist demonstration at the end, with the majority. of the audience singing the "Internationale." There is no reason whatever why those who disapprove of Japanese action in China should not show their resentment by refusing to purchase Japanese goods, but the meeting seems to have considered many more points than merely that. The difference between sanctions, which some of the more militant pacificists still desire, and ihe spontaneous boycott of goods undesirable for political reasons is a very important one Lord Cecil made the point that the purpose of those attending the meeting was to stop these hostilities in China, and if they did not succeed. to urge the citizens of all countries represented at the meeting to clear themselves of complicity in the Japanese "crime." Mr. Herbert Morrison argued for an international police force, and the withholding of loans to Japan, while Dr. Wellington Koo concluded that the peaceful weapon of the boycott was one of the economic sanctions provided by the Covenant of the League. The speeches have of necessity been epitomized, but what has been cabled out leaves the uneasy impression that the leaders of that type of liberal though typified by the "Internationale" are bent on endeavouring to persuade the neutral governments of the world to indulge in procedure by no means unlikely to lead to ai extension of hostilities, with the same heartiness as the invitation to join the swimming Party because of the delectable temperature of the water. The enthusiasm which the conveners of such a meeting show for their mission is just a trifle embarrassing. There is rather too mach of doing what is considered the right thing and damning the consequences, all of which may be completely praiseworthy, but in the circumstances hardly the wisest policy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.