FAR EAST CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21346, 22 November 1932, Page 9

FAR EAST CRISIS

THE JAPANESE REPLY

GREAT AMERICAN INTEREST

OFFICIAL COMMENT LACKING

PROBABLE SATISFACTION

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright' (Received November 21, 5.25 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 20

Printing a 9000 word summary of the Japanese reply to the Ljtton report on (ho Far East situation and the full text of the Earl of Lytton's address at Geneva, as well as numerous statements of various important national spokesmen, leading journals of the United States to-morrow will devote a large amount of space to the Manchurian question. The State Department has continued to maintain the same strict silence it enforced upon itself on the occasion of the original publication of the Lytton report and official comment of any sort is impossible to obtain.

However, it seems to be indicated that the American Government is satisfied with the defensive rolo which Japan was compelled to maintain, seeing nothing in the Japanese reply to have altered that condition.

Early reports from Tokio had indicated that the reply to justify Japanese action in Manchukuo would cite the action of tho United States in establishing a Government of Panama, which then signed over the Canal rights to the United States. The summary of the reply obtainable here contains no such reference and considerable curiosity is felt as to the exact nature of the reference.

The Earl of Lytton's address to-day will be broadcast throughout the United States and the League discussions will be followed with great interest. The New York Herald-Tribune, in a leading article, gives a warning against economic sanctions and a possible state of war, and declares that United States participation in the League deliberations " would lay the State Department's motives open to misconstruction. The New York Times commends the Earl of Lytton's address. "His appeal is couched in a lofty and persuasive tone befitting the high importance of the question coming before the League."

PROBLEM FOR LEAGUE

WHOLE STRUCTURE INVOLVED

DILEMMA AT GENEVA

(Received November 21, 9.25 p.m.) GENEVA, Nov. 21 The authorities recognise that Japan's insistence upon the recognition of the Manchukuo Republic amounts to the rejection of the entire Lytton report. Even those who recognise the force of the Japanese arguments admit that the League cannot accept tho Japanese thesis without undermining the whole structure of tho League. It is expected that the Council will bo forced to approve the first eight chapters of the Lytton report, at tho same time recording the Japanese and Chinese reservations, and then forward the document for the consideration of the Assembly.

A gloom descended upon Geneva in view of Japan's attitude to the Chinese threat to invoke the League's boycott clause against Japan if China was not " granted justice."

OPINIONS IN LONDON

VARYING PRESS COMMENT

SUPPORT FOR JAPAN'S CASE

(Received November 21, 9.25 p.m.)

LONDON. Nov. 21

Tho Morning Post states that an impartial reading of the Japanese reply makes it evident that Japan is legally and morally on stronger ground than the critics are willing to admit.

The Daily Herald states that it would he hard to imagine a more definite defiance of the League than Japan's reply, which categorically denies the right of the Council and Assembly even to discuss her actions. The issue is widened beyond the Sino-Japanese dispute. Tho whole future of the League and the peace machinery is at stake. The Daily Mail, in a leading article, states that Japan's reply to the Lytton report, which the Council of the League of Nations will consider to-morrow, demonstrates that right is on her side. It is iVisurd, the paper contends, to imagine that a strong Central Government in China is possible without immense delay. Japan will never tamely surrender her rights because Manchukuo would relapse into anarchy and ultimately fall into the hands of tho Soviet, like Mongolia. " The British boycott of Japan, suggested by cranks siding with tho Chinese war lords and Communists, means war for Britain against every British interest, continues tho article. Ihe ideal that tho bellicose pacifists at Geneva must understand is that Britain will not bo dragged into war with Japan, whose mission in Manchuria is that of civilising and humanising."