Evening star., 1937-08-30

AloIt, Saying LII #$:$$:333;i k.si'
effect, 'Let's David Lawrence.
mind our own
business and keep our own skins safe"
1t is precisely this superficial view
OF national security, this indifference
to the suffering of others, this un-
willingness to consider persons of an
other country as entitled to the help
or even sympathy of fellow human
beings which has brought break
down in world morality as well as the
spirit of religion itself.
1t is the irony of fate that Christian
omissions, developed, as they were, on
the theory that it was manifesto
ton of the brotherhood Of man to
seek to carry the gospel to the Far
East, should now see their missionaries
themselves and their families bombed
in hitherto safely segregated inter-
national settlements supposedly pro-
tected by treaty rights.
Three Powers Blamed.
The feeling of helplessness that gov
ernments and peoples exhibit about
doing anything to aid the innocent
people caught in the Far Eastern
Jheater is no accidental development.
1T is the result of series Of inde-
fensible steps in which the United
States, Great Britain and France have
each played culpable part.
The world today is merely reaping
the harvest Of brutality which it
ba of
tionallsm in the 20 years following
the European war. From the begin
ming the United States discouraged
any real form of international CO.
operation, refusing to help build a
World structure for peace even as the
League of Nations was dealt severe
blow by its own sponsors. Then came
Polncare's nationalism in France.
which forced the German people into
the hands Of Hitler. Finally, as Japan
reared her imperialistic hand to grab
Manchukuo, the international con-
science had been dulled to such an
extent that the heroic protest OF Sec
retary Stimson brought only a feeble
response In London and Europe gen.
orally.
Today British interests in the Far
East are menaced even more than
N1ose OF any other country, for these
interests are larger than those of
America or France or any other power.
Milestone Reached.
II the world is ready to accept pas
slvely the ruthless march of empire,
the disregard of the nine-power
treaty and all the other covenants
OF the past, then a milestone has been
reached. Treaty rights are gone.
international law-that is what Is left
OF its gone. Neutrality is gone.
And ell pretense of concern for the
tate OF our own citizens abroad or any
other human beings is gone, too The
world then will have gone back thou
sands OF years to the law Of the
1ungle-the era of the barbarian.
Strangely enough In the United
States, where persons in high office
pirate OF democracy and ideals and
compassion for the underprivileged,
there has not been a single word
forces OF all civilized nations in protest
against the "undeclared" war on inno-
cent men, women and children. Tech
nlcal excuses in carefully chosen
phrases are issued by officialdom to
explain why there has been no "neu-
trality' proclamation. The truth is
the neutrality law was a mistake
ch0
the Department of State or the Presi-
dent. Aslatic nations do not declare"
war-they make war on the instant
and without notice. The United
States has been selling war munitions
u Japan and China for nearly three
years. Neutrality preclamations now
would do more harm than good and
put us IN the position of taking sides.
Democracies Could Unite.
What America might have done in
the last three years was to build up a
better understanding and unity with
Great Britain and France. The three
great democracies OF the world could
have given more attention to the de-
velopment of international solidarity
and certainly approaches by the
United States, Great Britain and
France could have insisted on a sus-
pension of hostilities till foreigners
were withdrawn. Likewise the eco
nomic power of enough nations could
have been exerted IN concert so as to
require that the steps outlined in the
nine-power treaty be taken before
there were any hostilities. If treaties
can be violated by Japan and the rest
OF the world makes not even a verbal
protest, 1t is sign that international
engagements of all kinds can be re-
garded as scraps Of paper by any nation
&with impunity. The United States
Government has been pursuing a
drifting, opportunistic policy, and with
1t has vanished the moral leadership
which once had the courage at least
to speak on behalf of an outraged
mankind its opinion OF brutality and
savagery.
If the Japanese people some day
were to learn that the American people
apd the British people and the French