Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1932. THE DOOR STILL OPEN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 10

Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1932. THE DOOR STILL OPEN

The news from Shanghai, which looked very bad^ yesterday morning, was given a' better turn by the later reports from London.and Geneva of Britain's vigorous intervention. The report .that the negotiations between the Japanese and Chinese at Shanghai had ."definitely failed," and that the Chinese Mayor of .Greater Shanghai had been officially informed -that Japan "cannot accept the suggestion for a retirement to the previous positions," was dispatched from Shanghai a few. hours before the important and almost simultaneous statements of .Sir John Simon in the House of. Commons and Mr. J. H. Thomas at a, special meeting of the League' of Nations Council, and therefore" did not close the door against hope;'. A similar remark applies to the still more.ominous statement .made by the, Japanese Minister of War in justification of-his Government's decision- to,-mobilise another division for'dispatch to a destination which, though not named, is, not beyond all conjecture. The , decision was avowedly based upon' Japan's refusal to accept the Powers' advice regard. ing the international protection of Shanghai, and its ugliness is not concealed by the pretty language in which it-was conveyed.

•In the absence of perfect' co-opera-tion on the part.of the Powers the dispatch o£ troops became inevitable, said the Minister. This meant the extension of the battle-lino, but this was necessitated because the Powers' attitude inspired Japan with much apprehension. The whole nation must face the situation determinedly.

Though this defiant action on the part of Japan, and the appeal of her Minister of War to the fighting spirit of the nation, have considerably weakened the chances of peace, they were at.-any rate'not a reply to a protest which had not,then been deliveredi ''".' ■', _ ■;."'" • Sir John Simon, whd is new to the* game of diplomacy, may be congratulated on the manner in which he, has handled an, extraordinarily difficult business. Japan has certainly, no ground for suspecting him of unfriendliness, for his first public intervention in this trouble was greatly to her advantage. By taking the law into her own hands and seizing Mukden by what was really an act of war Japan had given the Nanking Government a great tactical advantage of which it promptly availed itself.- Instead of hitting back it .appealed to Geneva against this attack made by one member of the League of Nations upon another, and thus put Japan so clearly in the wrong that in all the important divisions on the subject in the League of i Nations Council her delegate found himself in a minority of one. But it is now generally recognised that the technical correctness of China's case had blinded the Council to some of the realities of the position and prompted a too precipitate action based on the assumption that the merits were all on one side. Sir | John Simon as a lawyer was | fully alive to the gravity of a highhanded breach of the Covenant, but as a statesman he was able to take a broader view/than the men who had been setting the pace at Geneva. Speaking on 25th November, he said!

The difficulty dia.not begin by the troops of one < country sailing across the sea or marching across the frontiers of. another country to invade it. It began because the Japanese exercised their undoubted treaty rights, which were not in diepute by China, to have an armed force on either side of this Manchurian railway as guards. The railway was broken—so it was asserted —by Chinese troops. Undoubtedly there was a good deal of very illorganised banditry in the neighbourhood, and the serious feature was the spread of Japanese forces in different parts of Manchuria which were undoubteaiy Chinese territory.

Our quotation is from the "Manchester Guardian," but other reports indicate a more definite admission that Japan's case had solid merits. The speech was at any rate clear proof of a friendly spirit and an open mind on the part of the British Government.

The.man who in November thus checked the strong set of public opinion both in Britain and in Europe against Japan has now come forward, to give the nations a. lead,

not on behalf of either party hut of Both, and of the peace, between them which is of "supreme concern to the whole world, and especially to those Powers who have special interests in Shanghai. In his speech reported yesterday, Sir John Simon referred to the efforts which had been already made by the Consuls-General of these Powers to negotiate a peaceful settlement and to the representations which the British Government had already made to the belligerent Governments with the utmost earnestness "to do what lies in and upon them to remedy the existing situation." The proposals now submitted at Tokio and Nanking provided for the cessation of acts of violence upon the following terms:—

No further mobilisation or prepara tion whatever for'further hostilities.

The withdrawal of both Japanese and Chinese combatants from all points of mutual contact in the Shanghai area. The'protection of the International Settlement by the establishment of neutral zones to divide the combatants. These zones to be policed by neutral reinforcements to bo set up by- the Consular authorities on the spot.

On the acceptance of these conditions prompt steps were to be taken to negotiate a settlement of all" outstanding differences between China and Japan "in the spirit of the Pact "of Paris.and 1 the Resolution of the League of Nations of 9th December without the prior demand of reservations and with the" aid of neutral observers or participants." The ironical synchronism ' of the progress of this desperate ' trouble with the preparations for the Disarmament Conference has long been in everybody's mind, and the irony reached a remarkable climax on Tuesday. Mr. Thomas arrived in Geneva with an important communication from the British Government for the Council of the League of Nations, and the special meeting which was, called to receive itMnvolved the postponement of the opening of the Disarmament Conference for two hours. Peace between China and Japan was properly given precedence of disarmament, which will, indeed,'have to wait a good deal longer than two hours if that already broken peace is allowed to develop into^a'war of. incalculable duration and extentrThe incidental irony that Mr. Thomas had just beaten his former,colleague, Mr. Arthur Henderson, by a,neck and intercepted the limelight, which would otherwise have fallen to him as chairman of the Disarmament Conference was trivial in comparison, but neat enough to justify- the mention of it in yesterday's report: The timing which made Mr:.Thomas's speech almost simultaneous ,with Sir John Simon's was also neat", Mr. Thomas's was, we believe, his first effort in diplomacy, and he appears to „ have acquitted himself exceedingly well.

_ Britain, he said, regarded the continuation of the situation as impossible. He added' that war in everything but name was progressing. Members of the League couia not be 'indifferent to it. Otherwise the Covenant, the Paris Pact, and tho Nine-Power Treaty would lose the confidence of the world. "'lt is significant," 'he added, "that America takes a similar view."

Supported by promises of immediate co-operation from M. Tardieu and Signor Grandi on behalf of France and Italy, and by the goodwill of the German delegate, Mr. Thomas's statement is said to have made a deep impression at Geneva. But Geneva was of course ready to be impressed.. The impression made at Tokio is of more importance. It is sure to be deep, but is it of the right kind? ;The'statement of the Japanese delegate,:-Mr. Sato, that "he believed his, Government would welcome the proposal .to create a neutral zone" is certainly 1 an encouraging sign. But a similar statement regarding an "armistice" in Manchuria got a Japanese delegate—Mr. Yoshizawa, I£we remember rightly—into trouble even-when" Baron. Shidehara was,in office, and a .withdrawal ,is just what the Japanese declined to accept at the instance of the Consuls-General. These facts, however, are .perfectly familiar to Mr. Sato, and his statement therefore gives us some ground for hope._