Evening star., 1932-03-28
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


the League of Nations Intervention
in the Far Eastern crisis.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
America founded the League Of Ma
tions. later disowned it. and now has
saved its life. That is the outstanding
fact which emerges from recent dolor-
GUS events at Geneva. The specihc
action by the United States which kept
the League from going ON the rocks at
the first real crisis in its history was
Secretary Stimsons letter to Senator
Borah. In that now celebrated com
munication, produced at the moment
the League was floundering in help
lessness over the Sino-Japanese con-
troversy, the American Secretary OF
State invited the world to join the
United States in declaring Japan's title
to Manchuria illegal and illegitimate.
Secretary Stimson asserted that If other
powers would join in such "caveat,
their action would, America believed,
eventually lead to the restoration to
China of rights and titles of which she
may have been deprived"
The Stimson- -Borah correspondence
was disclosed on the eve Of the League
Assembly, convoked on March at the
demand of China, after the League
Council for more than a month had
been stalling and sideStepping. The
Councils inability or unWillingneSS to
erapple with the Manchurian issue was
an international scandal throughout the
Fall and Winter. Japan defied and
flouted the Councils resolutions and
recommendations as regularly as they
were adopted. The war at Shanghal
ragged in continued contempt OF Ge-
nevas arguments and appeals. AS last
as China's battling spokesman at the
League. DR.. w. w. Yen, Chinese Min
lister to the United States, brought up
new points calling for League action
against Japan under the covenant, Mr..
Sato, the astute representative OF Japan,
countered with quibbling questions of
League procedure The net result was
that Geneva's machinery for curbing
an aggressor nation was brought to
standstill. Never before had so per-
feet a cause for intervention on behalf
Of peace been presented: never before
had the League so grievously demon
strated its incapacity.
Comes ut Crucial Time.
While this tragi-comedy was unfold
ing itself at Geneva in the closing days
of February the Stimson-Borah letter
flashed through the international heav-
ems. Powers large and small hastened
to seize upon it as a life-saver. Up TO
that time the smaller League nations
were the only ones which clamored for
action in the Far Eastern affair. They
found themselves so many voices cry
ing in the wilderness-the League will
derness, in which only the voices Of
few great powers, notably Great Britain
and France, pitch the key in which
Geneva speaks. For days and nights
the capital of the world" rocked with
circumstantial rumors that unless the
League pulled itself together and did
something in the Far East small states
would leave what some of them con-
sidered a sinking ship. They had
signed the covenant, they said, in the
faith that If one day their own terri
tory should be violated, as Japan was
violating Chinese territory, the League
would prove their sure shield. What
they were witnessing at Geneva
month ago was an eye-opener that left
the Leagues minor members aghast
and terrified. Coincident with small
states condemnation of League inac-
tivity and threats to abandon Geneva
one heard of japanese threats to leave
the League if it moved against her.
History will record that Secretary
Stimson, by accident or design, chose
this critical hour in the League Of
Nations fortunes to take a step which
was destined to serve the same purpose
as a rescuing hand stretched out to
drowning man. The big powers. which
want the League maintained for their
own purposes, were as eager to grasp
the hand as were the smaller states.
It was therefore eagerly decided by the
Assembly. which had now taken matters
out of the palsied hands Of the Council,
to accept Americas invitation to join
in placing cloud upon the Japanese
title to Manchuria. To that end a
resolution was adopted based alike on
Article 10 of the League covenant and
Article 2 of the Kellogg pact. The
covenant article pledges League men,
bers mutually to respect the territorial
integrity and political independence Of
member states. The pact article obli-
gates signatory powers to settle all dis
putes and conflicts by pacific means.
Suggestion Is Followed.
After invoking these two international
agreements. the Assembly declared that
it Is incumbent upon member states not
to recognize any situation, treaty or
arrangement which may be brought
about by means contrary to the Geneva
covenant Thistle kernel of the reso-
1ution-was in direct and definite line
with Secretary Stimson's suggestion OF
q "caveat" which would leave the hall
mark of international diSapproval upon
Japanese occupation of Manchuria. BY
such action the setting up of the So
called independent Manchurian state,
with the former boy Emperor Of China
as its ruling head, is branded as a con-
trivance which does not and will not
command official recognition. 1t was
action putting Japan on notice-Such
is the meaning Of ''caveat" in Secre-
tary Stimson's sense-that however To-
kio may view the political changes
brought about in Manchuria, they are
meaningless to the world at large.
A showdown will come if and when
the puppet state organized In Man
churia seeks recognition by other gov
ernments. Even Japan has not yet had
the hardihood to give it the o. K. of
formal cognizance. Nor has Great
Britain, which cut the figure Of Japans
principal advocate at Geneva, ventured
TO do so. When Sir John Simon, the
British foreign secretary, who more
than once pulled Japan's chestnuts out
Of the League fire, was asked a day or
two ago in the House of Commons
whether Britain would recognize "inde-
pendent Manchuria," the foreign office
spokesman evasively replied that it
would be premature for the government
to proclaim its attitude on the subject
Nor has France, which also exhibited
pro-Japanese symptoms at Geneva, yet
brought itself to look upon Manchuria
as q sovereign state.
watching" Body Created.
OF hardly less importance than the
Stimson "caveat," which was adopted
by the League Assembly. is the final
provision in its resolution for watch
ing committee" This committee, con-
siSting of the president of the Assembly
CHymans of Belgium), the IL members
of the council and representatives of
six other states, is to report as soon as
possible on the whole Sino-Japanese
diSrniIta &c "a cnr1nfirni1a the b.