There are something like thirty million Chinese in Manchuria and
about a million Japanese subjects, most of them Koreans. Nothing but an agreed settlement will ever form a basis for peace in Manchuria under those conditions, and China is fully justified in asking that the League shall figure in the discussions about a settle- ment. If Japan has any confidence in the justice of her case it is incomprehensible that she should resist this proposal. But the Council cannot afford to deliberate long while towns are being bombed and armies in conflict in the field. The League's prestige hangs in the balance, and the new display of Japanese sympathies by the principal organs of the Paris Press raises questions of some moment in the minds of those who know that Press well enough to seek external explanations of its views when it exhibits a sudden unanimity on a disputed issue. If Japan allows herself to be persuaded that the League Council is equally complaisant all hope of restraining her will vanish. To sympathise with Japan's difficulties in Manchuria does not involve condoning the military action she is taking.
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