Evening star., 1937-10-03
bR|TONS MASS|NG
BEHIND BOYCOTT
Move Proving Embarrassing
for Government, Cool to
Strong Steps. f
BY JACK BEALL.

~.ss BY JACK BEALL. +
london, October Public opin-
lon, outraged by the events in China,
is on the march here, as it has not
been since the Macedonian atrocities
at the time of Gladstone.
There is a spontaneity of feeling
about the bombings of Canton and of
Nanking, as we'll as the sheer fright
fuhess of the submarine attacks on
the Chinese junks off Hong Kong,
which argues that it will not take much
organization to bring the matter 70 a
head which the British government
may find embarrassing.
Already there has been a denuncia-
ton by the National Council Of
Labor, with demand for boycott and
government embargo on japanese
goods. The very powerful Trade Union
Council, with the ability to tie up all
shipping involving japanese imports
or exports, has yet to act, bu5 signs
are increasing that it means to. From
New South Wales comes the news that
the unions there have already taken
this extreme form of protest.
Mass Meeting This Week.
mass meeting of protests has been
organized by liberal paper for Albert
Hail next week No less a parsonage
than the Archbishop of Canterbury
VIII be in the chair. The boycott ioea
has gotten to the stage of distribution
ofs buttons with Il Don't Buy jap
arlese Goods" for individuals to wear
and placards with Il Don't Sell Jap
aneSe Goods" to be placed in shop
windows.
The Labor party is to have a meet
Ing next week, the outcome of which
Is expected to cause Maj. Clement
Atlee, leader of the opposition of the
House of Commons, who demands q
regeneration of Parliament, to con.
slider Japan's gross infringement oi
her international treaty obligations.
sAll liberal and labor newspapers are
aharpe on their front pages with dia-
tribes against Japan. Even the Times
has given portentouS warning in its
editorial columns that Japan had best
not offend a world "on whom she
vitality and inescapably depends" This
same great regimentor of British opin-
ion has been carrying at the top OF
It's letter column for the past three
days letters signed by nationally
known people calling for boycott
There Is no newspaper whatever, not
even on the Beaverbrook or the Roth
ermere Press, which does not condemn
Japan.
Massing of Opinion Necessary.
What does this all add up to? Does
1t mean that the government will be
forced to do something?
Chances are that it will take an
overwhelming masSing of public opin-
ion, such as overturned in the Hoare-
Laval intrigue, to force the govern
nlent's hand. The government very
much wishes to steer clear of any
overt act against Japan, especially at
this time of great tension in the Med
iterranean. AS brought out by the
Manchester Guardian:
There are no indications that at
the moment the British government
would welcome any step, an economic
boycott of Japan, for instance going
beyond the Geneva resolutions con-
demning Japan. A United States
offer to join such a boycott might,
some people say. do something to
weaken this reluctance.
The best evidence of the reluc-
tance is the demand, one hears, that
all the possible consequences of a boy
cett should be carefully weighed in
cluding the possible forcible seizure by
boycotted Japan of the considerable
oil supplies of the Dutch East Indies
and all that might mean"
Goes Lightly on Embargoes.
There you have it in a nutshell,
badly stung by one abortive attempt
to enforce economic measures against
an aggressor, and faced with the pos
sibility of war in the Far East, the
British government is determined to
go very lightly on embargoes and boy
colts.
of course, there is not the same
opus attached to a we'll l-organized buy
ing strike of citizens as there is to an
embargo, although the results would
be much the same for Japan. Already
there has been a cancellation of a
contract for l00.O00,o00 japanese
straws by a British importer, which
may be a straw in the wind to indi-
cate the way things will go, but
official governmental action is not
involved in that sort of thing
TO see how chary officials are to do
anything which might be construed
by the Japanese as an unfriendly act.
ope has only to read the reports eman-
ating from Geneva of how Lord Gran
borne fought to keep the name of
Japan out of the Leagues condemna-
ton. There also is the story of how
Sir John Pratt, Far Eastern advisor
of the foreign Office, working suppos-
edy under direct orders from Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain. sought
to. hamstring a proposal to send
f5000,000 worth of medical supplies
to- China. The British effort was to
reduce this to E1,0O0.000, all ear
marked for use against epidemics,
after the japanese had indicated their
geat displeasure at even medical
Intervention.
1T is perfectly safe to say that the
Brtish government will have to be
literally kicked into action by its own
people and supported on all sides by
tne other nations who do the ma jor-
ity of the business with Japan.
COPYRIGHT, 1887, by New York Tribune,
Inc.)