Welsh Journals

was circulated in Geneva that Sir John Simon was alleged to have said at a private luncheon that China was ill-advised in its demand for an Extra- ordinary Assembly and that he hinted that the Covenant was not applicable to the circumstances in the Far East. From all this it was argued Japan was deriving real encouragement in her defiance of international treaties. Sir John Simon, of course, meant nothing of the kind and 1* ought not to be impossible for a man of his ability to wipe out the belief in his tactlessness which sundry indiscretions may appear to have done something to justify. This is not the place to review all that has hap- pened in the Far East since the chronicle of events in the February issue of the Welsh Out- look. There have been many changes in the military situation and all for the worse. The climax for the Council of the League of Nations came with dramatic suddenness on Friday night, the 19th of February. Three days before "the Committee of Twelve," as the Council is called when it meets without the representatives of Japan and China, had sent to Japan alone a courteously worded "Note" reminding Japan once more of the promises which she had made and of the sanctity of the treaties which she had signed. This was the first occasion for the dis- tinction to be made in any official communication from Geneva between, as it has been put, "the wolf and the lamb." The Council was to meet again when the reply of the Japanese Government had been received to the "Note of the Twelve." However the word went round with lightning rapidity that the whole Council, at the urgent request of the Chinese delegate, would meet at 5-30 on the Friday afternoon. It has been my privilege through the years to attend a great num- ber of the public sessions in the famous "glass room" of the Secretariat--once the dining hall of the old Hotel National. But never was I pre- sent at so thrilling a session as that which began on February 19th at 5-30 p.m. The room was crowded with delegates and diplomats, with journalists and members of the Secretariat and as many of the public as could be crammed into such space as was left. In the chair at the horse- shoe table was M. Paul-Boncour with his wealth of white hair. He and the other thirteen members of the Council can have been the only people in the room who were not on their feet at some time or other during the three hours of the momentous session. So tense were the proceed- ings that nearly everybody, now and again, stood up to catch every word that was being said. And the meeting continued for three hours and a half. The central figure was M. Naotake Sato, one of the smallest men in the room. A youthful face, black hair and black moustache. To him fell the painful task of stating once more and at almost literally the eleventh hour the mind and the in- tention of the Japanese Government. He did it in a low, indistinct voice, speaking hurriedly but at great length in French. Three times the audi- ence did that most unusual thing in the Council Chamber-three times it laughed in derision. For sheer cynicism his assertion can have known no parallel when he complained that the League of Nations had failed in its duty in not protecting Japan against China He was followed by Dr. W. W. Yen, the elderly Chinese delegate, who speaks better English than most English people. When Dr. Yen had finished, none of M. Sato's arguments were left standing. It was one of the ablest pieces of dialectic that had ever been heard in Geneva. A hush fell on all when he said that at midnie-ht the Japanese time limit for the Japanese ultimatum would run out. And as if to emphasize his words the clock in the room struck eight-I had never noticed the clock striking before. Could the Council do anything? Could the League do anything to stop the massacre which would begin at dawn? Then followed a scene tragic in its powerlessness. It was all so very simple, but big things are sim- ple. The President, with a voice charged with emotion, talked of ground, within a few hours, strewn with the dead. Could M. Sato, would M. Sato, do the League the service of cabling to his Government to extend the time limit for the ultimatum? Then one by one everv member of the Council sitting on both sides of the table made a separate appeal to the little Jap who, it was thought, held at the moment the fate in his hands of war or peace, of the power or the impotence of the League itself. Here was the test at close quarters of all the ten years' effort in that room to build up guarantees of peace which would hold in the hour of the fiercest trial. Would M. Sato yield to the voice of reason, to the pleading of his fellows on the Council, to the desire of every man and woman in the room? The minutes were go- ing-slipping- away rapidly minute after minute. Soon came M. Sato's final word. Deathly pale, visiblv nervous, he said that complete withdrawal was impossible. America, Australia. New Zea- land were closed against Japanese immigrants, and Japanese trade was in jeopardv. Economic necessity—Japanese expansion-these could brook no opposition. The die was cast. At ten minutes past nine the President tapped the table with his wooden hammer. The seance was at an end, and the Japanese ultimatum expired at It will remain to the credit of the Welsh League or Nations Union that it was the first body any- where to suggest the calling of an Extra- ordinarv Assemblv of the League of Nations to consider the rupture between two of its members.