* * * * Arms for Japan
Chinese and Japanese may kill one another in Jehol, but those who choose can at least find satisfaction in the reflection that both nations have been taking seriously the exhortation to Buy British, and that British-cast bullets, discharged from British-constructed machine -guns, will be dealing out death to both sides indiscriminately. It was stated in a Parliamentary answer on Wednesday that in 1982 British manufacturers supplied 7,78..'.000 rounds of small arms ammunition to China and 5,861,450 tO Japan, as well as various other types of munitions. All this, of course, is perfectly legal, but it is intolerable that States, members of the League of Nations, should permit the export of arms to a country employing force in violation of the League Covenant. There are indica- tions—in an answer given by Sir John Simon in the Rouse on Wednesday—that the Government appreciates that, and discussions between the Great Powers regarding an arms export embargo are in progress. It is satis- factory that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the American Senate should have pronounced in favour of such a measure, but both unsatisfactory and surprising that they should propose to confine its application to States on the American Continent. The question of an -embargo on export to Japan will only arise when the League Assembly has adopted the resolution declaring Japan to be in the wrong, but that is likely to be an accomplished fact by the end of next week.
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