The Manchurian Issue' and the World The guarded message from
the Tokyo correspondent of The Times on Monday regarding a possible revolt of the northern provinces of China from Nanking, involving the restoration of the Manchu' dynasty in the person of Mr. Henry Pu, at present head of the puppet State of Manchukuo, is a revival of rumours by no means new. A rising at Peking, with more or less direct Japanese connivance, has always been the programme of, at any rate, a substantial section in Japan. On the whole immediate developments in this direction are unlikely, and if the League of Nations handles the Lytton Report recommen- dations wisely and firmly such a move may be perma- nently averted. But once more it must be insisted that the League for this purpose is the governments that compose it, and primarily Great Britain, the United States and France. On their joint action the peace of Asia may depend. And more than that. The important article by Lord Lytton on a later page of this issue needs no commendation here, but special attention may be drawn to the emphasis he lays on the fact that what is at stake is the future not merely of a country of 400 million people, but of the principle of world organization and collective responsibility that the world has salvaged from the wreckage of the War. That is the issue to be decided at Geneva.
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