The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1933. MORE "SCRAPS OP PAPER.”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19622, 17 October 1933, Page 6

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1933. MORE "SCRAPS OP PAPER.”

No one ought to be surprised that Germany has dared challenge the | Great Powers of Europe by almost arrogantly announcing her decision to withdraw from the League of Nations, because Geneva has never recovered from the shattering humiliation suffered by the League by the Japanese resignation. Doubtless Herr Hitler and his colleagues have come to the conclusion that if Japan can defy the nations represented at Geneva, and can walk through solemn treaty obligations as though they were mere waste paper, Nazi Germany need not fear the consequence of any defiance of treaties that may be decided upon. From all parts of the world Japan's attention lias been repeatedly called to the following paragraphs of the Nine-Power Pact, the KelloggPact, and the Covenant of the League of Nations, all of which she signed; The Nine-Power Treaty. Article I. The contracting Powers, other than China agree: To respect the sovereignty, the independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of China. To provide the fullest and most unembarrassed opportunity to China to develop and maintain for herself an effective and stable government. The Kellogg Treaty. Article n. The high contracting parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be. which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means. The League Covenant. Article X. The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled. Article XVI. Should any member of the League resort to war in disregard of its covenants under Articles 12, 13 or 15, it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the covenantbreaking State, and the prevention of all financial, commercial, or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State, whether a member of the League or not. Once Japan found the obligations imposed by treaties she had solemnly signed, had become positively irksome, the national leaders of Tokio simply ignored the treaties and went ahead in the pursuance of a foreign policy that constituted the grossest violation of definitely defined obligations, Japanese statesmanship had willingly accepted as a means towards outlawing war as an instrument of national policy. To-day Japan is legally still a member of the League, but although she has been guilty of the most arrogant violation of several treaties, her offences go unpunished although her victims in the Far East cry to heaven for vengeance. It is inevitable, therefore, in view- of Japan’s arrogant treaty-breaking and armed operations under the pressure of the dominant militarism, that in Asia despite the pleas of the ultra-optimists, the outlook is menacing. Japan has left the League of Nations and her spokesmen are saying with characteristic boldness that the year 1935 will be a critical one for the East, because the Washington naval treaties come up for revision, and by that time Japan’s freedom from the restrictions imposed by the Covenant of the League of Nations will be complete. No one in Tokio seems to concern themselves very much about other treaties in which Japan solemnly agreed to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy. Japan, however, remains in possession of Manehukuo, and may come into armed conflict with Russia at any moment. Moreover, Japan’s industrial competition with various countries is creating tension and unrest, but the biggest problems in the Pacific are the unmistakable signs of a new naval rivalry between Japan and the United States. Whatever her intentions, it is plain that for the next few years at least Japan will call the tune in the Pacific, because Nippon resolutely refuses to be hampered in the least degree by the solemn obligations of international treaties, or the restx-aints that may be imposed by membership of the League of Nations, and all that the Covenant means in main taining the peace of the world.