League of Nations has passed a resolution drawing the attention of the League Council to the seriousness of the narcotics situation in the Far East as revealed by its debates during the present session, and requesting the Council to take the most energetic measures possible to remedy the situation. There have been sv many pious resolutions passed by various committees of the League of Nations that the addition of this latest one to the rapidly growing files will mean nothing. No matter what the League may decide to do, it may be reasonably sure that Japan will ignore it. The trade in narcotics in this part of the world is assuming deplorable dimensions, and there can be no doubt whatever where the responsibility lies. From the subjugation of Manchoukuo the growth of the trade in that area has been all too apparent, and the grave responsibility for it cannot easily be shifted from Japanese to Manchoukuo shoulders. It is notorious that people subject to Japanese jurisdiction up to the time of the abolition of extraterritoriality are actively engaged in the traffic, and if now in Manchoukuo they are no longer unofficially tected there is no evidence available to show that they are being brought to book. With the Japanese occupation of north China and the establishment of the Provisional Government at Peiping, opium smoking has not only been legalized but has been made a source of revenue for the new government. There again it is reported that people subject to Japanese jurisdiction are mainly responsible for the trade. They have not been brought to justice, and cannot now be, because of its legalization. Mr. Nind the Indian delegate to the Committee said that the Japanese showed no signs of clearing up a situation which while it was E lost year was even graver now. His contention that the Japanese delegate had refuted none of the criticisms, but had only made pro mises of action and collaboration is probably correct. It is difficult to see what else, in view of the facts, he could have done. It is quite time that the Japanese took action to prove their bona fides in this matter. If they desire io retain control over drug-sodden residents in the areas which they now occupy they are going quite the right way about it, but what benefit such a state of affairs can be to them itis by no means easy to see.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.