LEAGUE COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20420, 15 December 1931, Page 11

LEAGUE COUNCIL.

* WORK ON MANCHURIAN PROBLEM. TRIBUTES BY BRITISH DELEGATES. (BRITISH OFflClAt WIRELESS.) RUGBY, December 13. Lord Grey of Fallodon and Lord Cecil, who returned yesterday from Paris, at the conclusion of tho League Council meeting, spoke at a demonstration in London last night on the Manchurian situation. Lord Grey said he thought that those who took an extreme view, saying that the Mancliurian dispute had shown the futility of the League, were very mistaken. Looking; back to before the War he thought of the complications to which such a dispute would have given rise, and as a result bo said; "Thanl; Heaven, there has been a League of Nations." The League had prevented tho present dispute from spreading. It had enabled tho Powers to work together to promote peace instead of playing each its own hand. Tt had changed the pre-war assumption that tho third-party intervention was an unfriendly act, and now, on tne contrary, it was an infringement ot the honour of a Power if it did not accept mediation. Both Japan and China had admitted the right of the League Council to investigate. Moreover, it had keen made clear that the Pans Pact and the Leaaue Covenant were in line, lne United States had taken an active and a beneficial hand. Japan had a strong case in Manchuria, and ho legretted that she had not, submitted it to tne League before she took military action, which, it seemed to him, was n°t" accordance with the Covenant or the P Lord Cecil, in referring "to the League Commission, whieh the cil had decided to send to Manchuria, said that ho believed it was a tremendous opportunity If t]ie y w^ we e fortunate they might succeed m removing once and for all the war cloud in tho Far East.