HAS STRONG CASE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 9

HAS STRONG CASE

Japan and Manchuria LORD GREY’S VIEW Work of the League Council “GREAT OPPORTUNITY” By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Official Wirelew. Rugby, December 18. The Manchurian situation was reviewed by Lord Grey and Lord Cecil, who spoke at a demonstration in London last night. Lord Grey and Lord Cecil returned yesterday from Paris at the conclusion of the League Council meeting. Lord Grey said he thought that those who took the extreme view of saying that the Manchurian 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 give rise, and as a result he said: “Thank Heaven there has been a League of Nations.” The League had prevented the present dispute from spreading, said Lord Grey. It had enabled the Powers to work together to promote peace instead of playing each its own hand. It had changed the pre-war assumption that third-party intervention was an unfriendly act, and now, on the contrary, it was an infringement of the honour of a Power if it did not accept mediation. Both Japan and China admitted the right of the Council to investigate. Moreover, it had been made clear that the Paris Pact and the League Covenant were in line. The United States had taken an active and beneficial hand. Japan had a strong case in Manchuria, continued Lord Grey, and he regretted that she had not submitted it to the League before taking military action, which seemed to him ,as not in accordance with the Covenant or the Pact. Lord Cecil, referring to the League Commission which the Council decided to send to Manchuria,'said he believed that it was a tremendous opportunity. If they were fortunate they might succeed in removing once for all the war cloud in the Far East.