PREVENTING WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 375, 17 March 1932, Page 5

PREVENTING WAR.

What the League has Done. EASTERN QUESTION. A reply to the man in the street who criticises the alleged impotency of the League of Nations to deal adequately with the Sino-Japanese question, was given last evening by Mr A. C. Brassington, president of the Christchurch branch of the League of Nations Union, during the course of a discussion on the Manchurian question. Mr Brassington said that the League could claim to have done three things. It had offered the Eastern world a civilised manner of settling disputes. It had prevented war in a technical sense between the two nations. It had shown the world the necessity for further action in international affairs. was unfortunate that the trouble in China had occurred during the progress of the Disarmament Conference, as it might probably jeopardise its success, said Mr Brassington. One thing that had impressed him during conversation with many people was the utter ignorance of people concerning the League of Nations and its many activities, notably the Labour office, of the existence oj which few people were aware. The questions as to what the League had done in the SinoJapanese crisis were mainly based on misunderstanding. It was necessary to understand the history' of the two nations, their contacts with Russia, the United States of America and the outside world. It was not generally understood that the use of unarmed forces was sufficient to exert pressure and break the power of the military caste in Japan. If everybody in the United States of America ceased to buy Japan goods. Japan would soon be on the verge of economic collapse. The speaker’s impression was of the enormous difficulty and complexity of the question, on which it was extremely difficult to secure full information, owing to the policy of suppression adopted by some English newspapers.