FAR EAST INQUIRY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 61, 8 February 1933, Page 7

FAR EAST INQUIRY

COMMITTEE’S DRAFT REPORT. REPORTED AGREEBIENT. OUTLINE OF MAIN POINTS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received February 8, 12.8 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 7. Tlie League of Nations Committee of Nineteen, which is engaged in the preparation of a draft report on the SinoJapanese dispute for submission to the League Assembly,. is reported to have agreed upon the main lines of the report. It is stated that these include: — (1) The recommendations must be based on the ten principles of Chapter 9 of the Lytton Report. (2) There emerges inevitablv from the first of these principles the fact that it is impossible to recognise the existing regime of Blanchukuo.

(3) In order to give effect to the non-recognition of Blanchukuo there must be unanimity of action. It is recognised as important that the co-op-eration of non-member estates having an obvious interest in the present state of affairs in the Far East should be secured.

Having determined the principles upon which tlie report, is to be drafted, the Committee of Nineteen has appointed a drafting committee which is meeting this morning at Geneva. It is anticipated that the complete report be ready at the end of next week.

Meanwhile, the Japanese delegation at Geneva has received fresh instructions from Tokio. These may lead to renewed efforts to bring about a settlement of the Japanese dispute with China by conciliation. Until the report which is being drafted in accordance with paragraph 4, Article 15 of the Covenant of the League is actually presented to the Assembly the door to conciliation is still open.

UNEASY FEELING

SAFETY OF ART TREASURES.

As an indication of the prevailing' uneasiness in regard to the political outlook in North China, the authorities of the Palace Bluseum, which is housed iu the Forbidden City have assembled 3000 cases of art treasures iu readiness for transportation by rail to Nanking or Shanghai. According to the Chinese Press, strict secrecy is being maintained regarding the precise hour of the departure of the special train which will carry the treasures southward, as the 'authorities fear that public bodies here may attempt to prevent .their removal from the former capital. Troops will guard the route over which the cases will be conveyed to the railway station, and street traffic will be suspended while the precious freight is put aboard. The treasures consist mostly of bronzes, porcelain, valuable State papers of the Blancliu Dynasty, priceless hooks, including a monumental encyclopaedia, running into hundreds of volumes, one set of which was destroyed in the Japanese bombardment of Chapei (suburban Shanghai) last year.