Evening star., 1931-12-06
JAPAN'S MANCHURIA FEAT
HELD ''WORD PEACE" BLOW
League, Kellogg and Consultative Pacts
~Scrapped" in Success Austria Failed
to Achieve in Bosnia i'm 1914. r~

The consultative pact, on the other
nand, only bound people to get to-
gether and talk about the question II
there were trouble. 1t could be de-
Tended against lationist criticism be-
cause 1t carried no contractual pledge
to act; 1t could be commended by the
peace societies because it bound the
United States to add its voice to other
peoples when emergency arose. Thus
we agreed to the nine-power treaty
with its consultative pact, accepted
the Kellogg pact and at least talked
about 1mplementing 1t by still an
other consultative pact. And finally,
at London during the Naval Confer
ence, Morrow and Stimson were favor
able to still another consultative pact.
Consultat tions and Results.
Always-in America and England
the idea was that it would prove
enough to get together and talk about
the question at issue. Always the argu-
ment was that the moral sentiment
Of mankind would thus be rendered
vocal and no single people would stand
out against 1t. No attention was paid
to the probable futility of consultation
by the Anglo-Saxon powers. BY con-
trast the armed states of the European
continent, particularly France and her
allies, declared their experience and
conviction was that consultations with
out means to enforce decision were
worthless, that war was war and, in
substance, that peoples who felt strong
ly enough to resort to aggression would
hardly stop just because three or six
peoples not directly concerned took q
high moral tone.
Critics OF the League say that If It
had acted differently it could have
avoided trouble. But If the League had
acted differently it would have dis
closed its impotence by inactivity
rather than by over-zealousness. De-
spite all criticism, the Geneva secre-
tariat were perfectly right in their con-
clusion that II the League did not act
with decision and success In this crisis
the result would be deplorable for 1t.
The League directors were perfectly
aware that for two years the Geneva
organization had been losing ground
everywhere in Europe that 1t was nov
or never" with them.
AS a practical matter 1t Is not 60
ing to be possible for some years to
obtain hearing in Europe for the IA
miliar Anglo-Saxon thesis that the So
luton Of the world problems Is .
peace Of understanding"
Old-fashioned diplomacy went into
the discard in July, 1914. The new Just
as plainly has been reduced to nothing
In the crisis of October, 1881.
The Japanese have demonstrated that
the thing to do Is to arm and to disre-
gard world opinion and, when you ac-
complish your ends, to discuss the mat
ter with world which Is too poor to
fight and too disorganized to employ
economic and financial coercion.
Japan In 1881 has followed the ex-
ample Of Austria In 1914 The course
of Toxic, like that of Austrias German
ally, has reduced a system OF peace to
scrap OF paper" In fact, the air Is
now full Of flying scraps OF paper for
the covenant Of the League, the KeI-
logg pact and the consultative pact havs
all gone together. BY contrast, unlike
the Germans in 1914, the japanese
were able to choose their moment.
They struck at moment as propitious
as that, following the Russian defeat In
Manchuria, when Buelow chose to make
the Moroccan gesture. Japan has ac-
tually accomplished what Austria
planned to achieve in 1914. She has
dealt with China as Austria expected to
deal with Serbia. After a dozen years
OF wandering in idealistic fogs, the world
has been brought back to realities by
policy Of violence based upon a Just es-
innate OF the forces in play in the
world. The blow has fallen not because
the League officials acted foolishly, but
because the League was based upon the
assumption that peace was an ethical
and not political problem and that
words would always restrain weapons II
cne only trusted them sufficiently.
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