HOPE DISPELLED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1931, Page 10

HOPE DISPELLED

FAR EAST SETTLEMENT

tf&PAN ynLL NOT BUDGE CHINA'S BITTER PROTEST

/' LEAGUE'S DILEMMA

"itoHed Prwa Association—By Electric Tels-

eraph—Copyright. [(Received 20th November, 2.30 pan.) , PARIS, 19th November.

Whatever slender hopes there were ,jbf a settlement of the Manchurian quarrel were dispelled by a Japanese Note to M. Briand, stating that, although they were agreeable to the dispatch of a League Commission to Manchuria, they refused to withdraw their troops until a new treaty had been directly negotiated with China, confirming the present treaties on five points. The Note declares that even if the feecurity of Japanese subjects and property seem to be assured, Japan will maintain her military occupation, because she feels that the Nanking (Government is the tool of the antiJapanese Kuomintang and powerless jU> maintain order. Japan cannot conteider the proposals of the League Councillors for certain Sino-Japanese '^^negotiations coinciding with evacuation. -

Dr. Sze (China) presented a Note |£osthe Council in the bluntest terms, Jssking whether the Kellogg Pact and " League Covenant possessed a valid Spree, and, if so, why no concerted •ction had been taken. . The Note threatened to invoke Articles Fifteen JBrid Sixteen. If the League failed China would be" forced publicly to , blame the Powers for-their unwilling.ness to lift a finger to defend a teolemn covenant.

The British delegates are pressing ~,jfor a public meeting, at which the .Chinese and Japanese shall state their proposals.

All channels of settlement under Article Eleven are seemingly exhausted, and the Council is confronted with an inextricable dilemma, as it is doubtful whether the League is prepared to enforce the, sanctions of Article Sixteem