JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE
[To the Editor of the .SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—I imagine general public opinion is in line with the lead you are giving, that we recognize extreme provocation to the Japanese and their difficulty in dealing with a govern- ment that is no government, and whatever arguments there may be for the French plan, most of us have lost faith in a " war to end war " ; we should be chary Of entrusting to the League of Nations, subject as it is to so many influences, a force adequate to stop any war, while anything short of that
might land the world in the disaster of a defeat of the League forces. And we arc heartily behind our Foreign Secretary
in his efforts to combine strength with discretion. But we fail to see why Japan joined the League and why she signed I he Kellogg Pact if she did not intend when the pinch came to stand by them..
Something much bigger than the Eastern situation is at stake, namely, the chance of ultimately outlawing war ; and here equal harm may be done by the hotheads and the sentimentalists. Those of us whose hopes, rather than at present our faith, are in the League, deprecate the ridicule being poured out in some quarters on the League's apparent ktilure. It has not failed. It is acting as a brake ; it is providing at each stage a body of immense authority for negotiation. Can we doubt that without it a full-dress offen- sive by Japan would now be in operation, that the " rights " of other European powers would be threatened and that Europe would be grouping itself on one side and the other with the imminent risk of another world-war ?—I am, Sir, &e., Wychbold Vicarage, Droineich. - E. C. OWEN.
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