LEAGUE'S RESOLUTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 145, 31 March 1932, Page 5

LEAGUE'S RESOLUTION

JAPAN LOGICALLY IN NET. SERIOUSNESS OF REJECTION. LONDON, March 14. Japan is logically in a net from which there is no escape, and rejection of the terms would be serious because the Assembly of the League of Nations would have to consider other than conciliatory methods. This is the interpretation by the Geneva correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" of the draft resolution submitted to the Japanese and Chinese delegates for the settlement of the trouble in China. Believed to be acceptable to both parties, the resolution is said to have been mainly the work of the British Foreign Secretary (Sir John Simon). It clearly embodies the principle of non-recognition of either claims, and disallows the Japanese argument that the Manchnrian problem is separate from .Shanghai and outside the competence of the Assembly. The "News-Chronicle's" correspondent says that although the resolution is not a direct impeachment of Japan, it lays down a standard of international morality such as has never before in the history of the League been addressed by the nations to a great Power. "This is a tribute to the collective action of the smaller nations," says the paper, "whose insistence restored the League's initiative. "If the League withdraws irom active participation in the dispute, knowing the consequences, it will be a deliberate act of cowardice." '