THE ANGLO-JAPANESE AGREEMENT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 256, 27 July 1939, Page 8

THE ANGLO-JAPANESE AGREEMENT

Mr. Charnberlain’s statement on the subject of the Anglo-Japanese agreement is reported to have had a cold reception in the United Kingdom and also has caused disappointment in China. The London Times in editorial comment printed in The Dominion today points out that the British Government has simply fallen into line with other foreign Powers with interests in China. This is a delicate way of stating that as those particular Powers had failed to co-operate with Britain in the spirit of the Washington Nine-Powdr Treaty, Britain could not in fairness be expected to carry the burden alone. American Press comment is more candid and downright. “There will be much unjust grumbling in the United States,” says the New York HeraldTribune, “about betrayal of the white man’s rights under international guarantees. Such grumbling will come with poor grace from this country, which has given Britain absolutely no encouragement to defend those treaty rights with which ours are bound up....” What happened in Abyssinia, in Central Europe, and has since happened in the Fat East, has been a blow to the ideal of collective security, and a poignant demonstration of the fact that no peace system organized on this basis can possibly succeed without effective force behind it. Community law derives respect for its authority from the presence of the police force that stands ready to enforce it, and the same must apply in the enforcement of international law. If the wdrld is fortunate enough to escape the war crisis that now threatens it, and is given another opportunity of applying- the principle of arbitration to the settlement of international disputes two fundamental requirements must be present if success is to be achieved: all nations—not some—must be affiliated to the system, and all decisions must be rigidly enforced. The present reign of international banditry cannot go on indefinitely. Sooner or later the law-abiding nations must join issue with the law-breakers, both for the sake of their own security, and for the restoration of the prestige and authority of international • law.