Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-23

Tomorrow at the White House some
81 nations-practically all the civilized
nations of the world-will meet to Gel
citrate the Kellogg pact, binding them,
each and severally. to abandon war as
a national policy in the settlement OF
any disputes or furthering any ambi-
tions.
Today the guns Of a new outbreak,
which, unless that pact can stand its
first christening test, must inevitably
lead into the greatest war since the
ending of the World War at Versailles,
are echoing in Manchuria and drown
ing the protestations of Russia that
since she is a signer Of that very pact
to be celebrated tomorrow she could
not possibly contemplate violating 1t
upon its very first communion day.
SThe League Of Nations has made
egregious failure in stopping wars.
Humanity turns pitiously to the Kellogg
peace pact as its only hope. VIII 1T,
too, failp
Missionaries have agitated for more
than a decade for national disarma-
ment, upon the theory that our help
lessness will end greed Of all our enc
mics and assure safety. When world
league. pledged to turn all nations to
a combined disciplining of the aggressor
in any war, finds itself palsied in the
face Of an outlaw nation snarling at the
most populous country on earth, all
that is left is the honor behind the
kellogg pledge of all nations outlawing
all wars except purely defense against
a palpable aggressor and invader. II
that fail-and If We forget prepared
ness for our own defense-what Is the
limit of peril?
~
The seat Of the present danger. Man
churia, Is 5000 miles from the United
States, vet there is a four-power pact
between the United States, Great Brit
ain, Japan and France to guarantee
the peace of the Orient and Of the Pa
ciic Ocean. A guaranty must involve
intervention to fulfill its promise. Be
sides. If Soviet Russia can browbeat
China and overcome and establish
communism therein. then the world rev.
olution for which she has been openly
and perniciously plotting for a decade
will have we'll begun with quarter OF
the world population conquered.
X n + X
The present crisis has a significant
background behind the event: 1t did
not rise suddenly, without preliminary
struggle.
Manchuria has been a bone of con-
tention for many decades. over which
three great powers have been jealousy
struggling. 1t has an area OF 363,olo
square nileS-enough to contain almost
all States of the United States east
of Ohio and stretching as far north and
south as from the st. Lawrence River
to Florida. There it stands, between
China on the south, Japan on the east
and Siberia Russia on the north and
west. coveted by all three, but possessed
by China without ever having been con-
Quered by that nation.
Japan needs its resources Of raw ma
terials and minerals; Russia needs 1tS
warm water ports that her commerce
upon the Pacific may not be icebound
half the year, as 1t Is at all siberian
ports; China needs its land for her
Overlooking population, that they may
cultivate its crops and feed the hungry
millions. Since the Chinese Republic
was founded, in 1911, more than l5,-
600 900 Chinese have migrated into
Manchuria.
Instead Of China's ever having con-
uuered Manchuria, she herself was
overcome by the Manchus in 1914, and
her conuuerors required that all Chi
nese men wear "pigtails" as symbols of
submission to the rule of the Manchu.
Only In 1911 was China able to throw
off the Manchurian rule, depose the last
Manchurian from the Chinese throne
and set up a republic which included
the territory of the former conquerors-
Manchuria-as q province.
This development was so inevitable
under existing conditions that neither
Japan nor Russia dared protest openly.
The power of Russia and Japan so
nearly neutralized each others claims
that China was able to assert control
of the province, with international rec
ignition, although some decades or more
prior to that coup Russia had reached
out through Siberia and, defying the
Manchu Emperors Of China, had domi-
mated all Of Asia north Of the Amur
River-the present northern boundary
of Manchuria. Then also Russia,
through bribery, had gotten the treaty
Il.