SERIOUS VIEWS TAKEN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 79, 30 September 1924, Page 7

SERIOUS VIEWS TAKEN

"PROTOCOL WILL BE USELESS." (ACSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 29th September. The Central News correspondent at Geneva says that M. Loucheur and M. Briand conferred at length with Baron Adachi, with-a view to obtaining a modification of' Japan's attitude on the Arbitration Protocol, but he was adamant, and continued to threaten that Japan would not sign. : ; All the. correspondents emphasise the seriousness of the position • Japan, has created, and admit that, without Japan's signature, the Protocol will be useless, and that the efforts of M. Heriot and Mr. Mac Donald in the direction of disarmament will be frustrated. The "Pajly Telegraph" correspondent says the. Japanese did not oppose the Protocol in committee, aiid it is therefore believed that Baron Ada-chi's amendment is due to special instructions from Tokio. • The "Morning Post" correspondent considers that tha amour propre of

Japan has received hard knocks lately, particularly from the American Exclusion Act. "Devastated within, and insulted abroad, she is" ready to seize anything to restore her prestige and satisfy public opinion. Other nations, realising this, are exerting themselves to the utmost towards a compromise, but hitherto no progress has been ,made. "Japan unquestionably wants, sooner .or- later, to make the immigration question' a compulsory subject for arbitration, entailing the risk of war. This the other nations, including Australia, whose internal policy would be the first affected, .are .opposing strongly, on .the ground that it would ibe an encroachment of domestic sovereignty, and an opening of the door to interference in all sorts of internal questions, which would soon put an end to the League. The British attitude is most concise. She will refuse to sign the Protocol rather than give away the principle of non-in-terference in domestic matters." ,