If a truce can be arranged and observed a permanent
and peaceful settlement may still be possible, but the League Council has very properly warned Japan, as the United States Government had done long since, that no recognition can be given to a situation created and main- tained in violation of treaties like the League Covenant and the Pact of Paris. It is to be hoped that the firmness shown by the Council on Tuesday was in some degree the result of decisions taken by the British Government. No one will underrate the gravity of the situation the Cabinet has to face, and it must be recognized that if steps more drastic than diplomatic representations arc called for, they can be taken only if the United States Government is ready to take the same action simultaneously. Both Mr. Thomas and Sir John Simon have done much to unify the policies of the principal members of the League Council, and it has been made perfectly clear that the United States finds no difficulty in co-operating with the League in this matter. If the Council varies from its attitude of Tuesday it must be to move forward and not backward, and it may be hoped that Sir John Simon will return to Geneva authorized to try and carry the Council with him as far as Mr. Stimson is ready to go. The whole Disarmament Conference and the whole principle on which the League of Nations rests have been gravely imperilled in the past week. It is not too late yet to save them.
