Protests Against Japan The large-scale planned bombing of open cities
in China far behind the fighting lines and without any evident military objectives has been carried out by the Japanese with a systematised brutality which has aroused horror throughout the more civilised world. The protests made by the British, American and other Governments had as their background far more vehement outbursts of public opinion. In this country The Times promptly opened its columns to a corre- spondence in which such various writers as Sir Francis Acland, the Bishop of Bristol and Mr. J. M. Keynes expressed the growing body of opinion in favour of bringing Britain, the United States and Holland into line, with a view to cutting off trade relations with Japan. The News Chronicle has followed suit by organising a national protest meeting at the Albert Hall, with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair. There are signs that British public opinion is not incapable of being moved today as it was by the Macedonian atrocities in the time of Gladstone. In the meantime the Assembly of the League of Nations has formally registered its protest in a strong resolution which, though it recommends no specific joint action, gives moral support to those Governments which may feel able to take action on their own account.
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