Evasion at Geneva The League of Nations Assembly's Committee of
'Nineteen, after trying to draft a resolution on the Manchurian question acceptable both to Japan and China, has adjourned till January 16th. Nothing could be more unsatisfactory. For something like fifteen months now the League, under the leadership of the Great Powers, and most particularly of Sir John Simon, has been twisting and turning in discreditable attempts to avoid calling a breach of the Covenant a breach of the Covenant. At the end of twelve months the Lytton Commission, in its unanimous report, puts the facts plainly before the world, making it completely impossible for any League State to recognize Manchukuo, yet the League still refuses to set down in black and white the conclusion that Manchukuo cannot be recognized. Every further week of delay suits Japan's plan better and detracts more from the prestige of the League of Nations. The Japanese Government has obviously derived much comfort from Sir John Simon's last speech in the Assembly, and the same utterance has, judging from all reports from China, driven the Nanking Govern- ment very near the conclusion that all hope of getting justice at Geneva is futile. Between the Japanese insistence that Manchukuo shall stand and the Lytton Commission declaration that it cannot stand the League must inevitably choose. At present a kind of endurance test in evasions of the issue is in progress.
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