America and an Arms Embargo The announcement that the League
Assembly's Committee of Twenty-two sat on Tuesday to consider the question of an arms embargo against Japan is a welcome sign that the statesmen of Europe have not washed their hands of the Manchurian affair altogether. By what should be a. fortunate coincidence the House of Representatives at Washington was sitting simul- taneously to accord President Roosevelt the powers he asked for to impose an arms, embargo against any country in his discretion. Whether this action has come soon enough to prevent the League Committee from adjourning—rather ironically—till' after Easter, on the ground that it was helpless till Mr. Roosevelt was invested with the necessary powers, is still uncertain. The resolution of the House has still to be adopted by the Senate, but as that body was prepared to give Mr. Hoover unrestricted power regarding an arms embargo, it will certainly not refuse it to Mr. Roosevelt. With Mr. Norman Davis now in Europe there is every reason why the League Committee, with an American delegate taking part in its deliberations, should consider definite action at once. It would be a fatal confession of ineptitude if a nation by the simple expedient of leaving the League were able to escape all the consequences of violating the League's Covenant.
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