DANGEROUS PROPOSALS

Evening Star, Issue 22772, 6 October 1937, Page 11

DANGEROUS PROPOSALS

■ & " SANCTIONS AGAINST JAPAN WOULD BE REGARDED AS HOSTILE ACT (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, October 5. (Received October G, at 11 a.m.) A resolution passed by the Labour Party conference at Bournemouth calling upon the British Government to cooperate with other countries in imposing economic and financial pressure designed to end Japanese aggression follows the lines of the demand made by the Leader of the Liberal Opposition, by the Council of Peace and Reconstruction, by the League of Nations’ Union, and various political, religious, and pacifist societies. The measures proposed meet with relatively little wholehearted Press support. ‘ The Times ’ notes that the protests to Japan by certain Powers apparently have not been without effect, in that no major aerial attacks on nonmilitary objectives have been made for several days. Discussing the boycott proposals, it points out that any Government which embarks on sanctions against Japan must be prepared for interpretation of such a step as a hostile act, that sanctions, to be effective, require complete co-operation between Governments who contemplate imposing them, and that they might well at this juncture have the elfect, not of humanising warfare in China, far less of stopping it, but rather of driving Japan to yet more desperate lengths. It urges that the feelings aroused should seek an outlet in efforts to relieve the dreadful sufferings of the Chinese people. The ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ opposes action for the same reasons, and remarks that not only would achievement of the end m view bo uncertain, but the injury would be felt by the boycotters as well as the boycotted. The .‘Manchester Guardian’ says: “ If Sanctions are effective there must be a risk of war, and in this case risk of war in the Far East means a greater risk in Europe.” The ‘ News Chronicle ’ supports the demand for the use of the economic weapon, as does the ‘ Daily Herald,’ which criticises the Government for rejecting resort to measures which, it says, could effectively avert the war.