FAR EAST CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 6

FAR EAST CRISIS

DEMANDS OF SMALL NATIONS DEFENDING TREATY RIGHTS The reasons behind the clash of the Chinese and Japanese forces in the East, and th£ procedure of the Assembly of the League of Nations in dealing with the crisis, occupied the attention of members at the discussion meeting of the [Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union on Thursday evening Mr. iW. T. G. Airey presided. Mr. W. S- Kingston-Smith, in leading the discussion, quoted the opinion of the veteran English journalist, Mr. Wickham Steed, that if Great Britain had supported, instead of ignoring, the invoking of the Nine Power Treaty of the United States of America, the attack on Chapei. Shanghai, would not have occurred, and the trade of that great port would not to-day be paralysed. The special meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations in March was a determined stand by the small nations of the world in opposition to the great Powers and in defence of the rights of treaties, Said Mr. Kingston-Smith. Those dramatic meetings in Geneva proved to the world afresh the powerful influence of international public opinion. For one of the first times in history the actions of a Great Power were openly and emphatically condemned by the representatives of nations and peoples, an occurrence which would have been inconceivable before the formation of the League y/ of Nations.