MANCHURIA AND ABYSSINIA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sta,---On my return to this country from abroad, I notice that the Earl of Selborne has been discussing the application of the Covenant in the case of Abyssinia and contending that there is no analogy between the present situation and the Man- churian crisis of recent time.
I notice that Lord Selborne writes In the case of Japan her two great neighbours, the United States and Russia, were neither of them members of the League of rations, and for the European nations to try to apply sanctions to Japan without the participation of the United States and Russia Would have been a fatuous proceeding."
Lord Selborne may possibly be right, but that is not the View of the United States. I have had the advantage of reading their papers for the last two months, and if there is °Ile episode in our recent foreign policy 1•.:hich has caused bitterness in America, it is our action over Manchuria. Per- haps I might quote the San Francisco Call which, reviewing the famous crisis entailed by Japan, denounced what it con- aidered the " cynical and unctuous attitude " of Great Britain
en that occasion and concluded : " China belonged to the League of Nations and suffered an unpro.. Yoked attack and dismemberment. Tho Edens and the Snowdens of it all to Stimson, and America came pretty close to war because of its sole championship of China."
Every American newspaper without distinction takes the same line and I am afraid Lord Selborne cannot dismiss the incident so lightly.—Yours very faithfully, •
CHARLES WATNEY.
Courtfield House, Courtfield Road, S.W. 7.
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