CHINA AND THE LEAGUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19829, 2 May 1927, Page 8

CHINA AND THE LEAGUE

THE PRESENT SITUATION AN EXPLANATION BY SIR GILBERT MURRAY. “Many people both in England and America have put to me in different forms the question why the League of Nations has done nothing to prevent or heal the continued fighting and friction in China, said the chairman ,of the League of Nations Union Executive (Sir Gilbert Murray), in a letter to The Times. May v I mention some, at least, of the reasons:— “(1) The fighting in China between the various Tuchuns is a civil war and not international. The League’s business is with international affairs. (I do not say that the League could never interfere and stop a civil war; it might conceivably be done under Article XI.; but obviously it would be a stretch of the League’s powers, and the- very exceptional conditions which might possibly justify such action are clearly not present in China.) “(2) The general friction between China and the Treaty Powers is, of course, international, and would normally call for action by the League. But one of the principal Treaty Powers is America, which would not only refuse to accept mediation by the League, but would vehemently resent it.

“(3) The special friction between the British and Chinese at Hankow and elsewhere might come before the League if (a) there were any Chinese Government really representative of the whole country, and (b) if that Government were responsible for the acts complained of, or capable of dealing with the parties responsible. But the people responsible seem to be disobedient members of the party of a rebel general, and the wise action of the British Government in dealing with Mr Eugene Chen seems to be exactly what is required. It would be little use insisting that the defunct Peking Government should reprimand or punish its most powerful enemy for not preserving better discipline in his ranks.

“So far from the Chinese trouble showing the weakness of the League, the really striking fact is that international war, which tho League was meant to remedy, has practically disappeared from the world; all the recent troubles—in China, Syria, Morocco, and elsewhere —have been domestic in character, and have gone on just because they did not come into the sphere of action of the League.”