News of the Week
IT is at any rate a significant coincidence that the day after the despatch from Geneva of the stiffest Note the League Council has nerved itself to address to Japan the Japanese and Chinese commanders at Shanghai should have decided to confer before pursuing hostilities to the point of a pitched battle with substantial forces on both sides engaged. The League Note is described as an appeal, but the fact that it was addressed to one belligerent only, and referred to Article X of the Covenant, which deals with the protection of League members " against external aggression," is a belated but satis- factory sign that the Council has come to definite con- clusions on where responsibility for the situation at Shanghai lies. It could hardly have done otherwise in view of the two reports sent to it by the committee of consuls at Shanghai charged by the principal members of the Council with presenting an objective account of the earlier stages of the fighting. It is clear from the first report that when the Mayor of Greater Shanghai had complied with all the Japanese demands to the entire satisfaction of the Japanese Consul-General, the naval authorities insisted on sending marines to Chapei and so started a conflict that has grown in intensity and magnitude ever since.
