Evening star., 1937-10-28
Brussels Vacant Chair.

As expected IN washington and nearly
all the other nine-power treaty capitals,
Japan has formally repudiated next
weeks Brussels conference on the
Chinese-Japanese war by declining the
invitation to attend it. Her chair will
be vacant. Condemning the parley as
unworthy of Japanese notice because of
its League of Nations origin, the Toxic
government takes refuge in the cynical
theory that, far from settling the ques-
ton, the conference would only put
serious obstacles in the path of the just
and proper solution of the conflict"
Supplementing this almost contempt
uous refusal to set in motion the Wash
ington pact's machinery for frank
counsel" among its signatories, proviso
to which she unreservedly subscribed,
Japan issues a labored justification of
her intransigeance. The nine-power
treaty is obsolete" because of the in
filtration" of Communism in China.
Sino-Japanese difficulties can be rec
onciled only through direct negotia-
tions between the two powers On them
alone falls the common burden of
responsibility for the stability of East
Asia" Japans action in China is "a
measure of self-defenSe." 1t has been
taken in the face of Chinas violent
anti-Japanese policy and practice"
Therefore, "it lies outside the purview
of the nine-power treaty" What Japan
asks of the powers is that they fully
for solution of the conflict is a revision
of the Chinese governments attitude
toward Japan and change of policy
to that of cooperation between the
two countries
Such turbulence and defiance, which
amounts to a japanese demand on the
powers that they not only acquiesce in,
but connive at compelling, unconditional
surrender by China, virtually torpedoes
the Brussels conference. The other
eight signatory nations plan to meet
according to schedule. If mediation be
their purpose, as both the American
and British governments declare it to
be, it will be case of playing Hamlet
without the melancholy Dane. Toxic
clearly indicates that the only "medi-
alton" which enlists Japan's interest is
the blood-and- iron solution" for which
her armies and warships are striving in
North China and at Shanghai. To effect
"a speedy settlement" of that brand, the
official rejection of the Brussels bid en-
phasizes, "the Japanese nation, rising as
one man, is united in a determination
to surmount all obstacles"
Remonstrances, resolutions, protests,
1t must now be disconcertingly evident
to the most inveterate disciples of
palaver, are hopeless as an antidote to
japanese aggression. Palaver, 1t hap
pens, is defined in the dictionary as
'a profuse parley; hence, public discus
sion or conference" Palaver happens,
too, to be term of Portuguese origin.
Asia Portuguese India and Macao, in
China) is a party to the nine-power
treaty and, therefore, participant in
the conference. She will have only
minor voice in its decisions. But if she
pulls her idiomatic, rather than her
diplomatic, weight in the eight-oared
Brussels boat by stressing the utter
futility of palaver under the nugatory
circumstances Japan has provoked,
Portugal will make a positive contribu-
ton to what seems otherwise doomed
to be an international futility.
1t is unthinkable that the treaty pow
ers would let matters rest there. World
opinion is not in mood to tolerate so
humiliating and craven an exhibition
of craftsmanship in bankruptcy.