The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1938 A GENEVA SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1938 A GENEVA SCHEME.

For the cause thnt tacks assistance. For the irrong the! needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do

If a report published to-<lay fully represents the facts, the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and Soviet Russia "have reached a tentative agreement oil a plan to assist China." That is a dangerous development, and its implications immediately become apparent upon reading the statement of [General Matsiii at Shanghai. "I am afraid," Ihe said, "that if Britain goes beyond the policy of simply defending her interests in China, and makes a determined stand to I . . maintain her political and economic relations with the Kuomintang, a very serious AngloJapanese conflict may arise." Such a I statement should not be made by a military commander, but as there is good reason to Isuspect that the Army, and not the Government, speaks for Japan, full weight must be given to it. It is a plain warning that a certain course of action is likely to have •certain coiiMotionce;. I I flic time and place for the Powers to s'gree upon concerted measure.- to aid China was the Brus.-els Conference in November. That conference failed; it revealed, a- was expected, no disposition among the l'owers to act together. Mo>t important of all. it revealed that the United States was unwilling to join | with Britain in common action. To-dav Mr. Cordell Hull is reported to have derided the idea of participating in the Geneva scheme, and to have said that no change was contemplated in American policy. Whatever the merits of the Geneva scheme —if it has any merits—Mr. Hull's statement should dispose jof it. Nothing is more certain than that, without American support, the burden of the scheme would fall upon Great Britain. If they have not already done so, the Governments of the Empire should make it plain that they will not be committed to any such scheme. | Considering the notorious weakness of the League, and remembering the fate of the sanctions campaign against Italy, it is astonishing that there should now be even a discussion at Geneva on what amounts to a proposal to impose sanctions (limited and disguised) against Japan. It is astonishing, and also disturbing. Possibly the British Foreign Minister gave no support to the proposal, but his association with the Soviet representative is not likely to be observed with pleasure by esponsible people in British countries. If M. Litvinoff wants British eo-operation, he wants it not for the sake of China, but for the sake of Russia. Furthermore, as Japan is a signatory with Germany and Italy of the anti-Communist pact, even the suggestion of action by Britain, France and Russia against Japan carries the implication that the League (to say nothing of Britain) may be numbered amongst the supporters of Communism's aims abroad.