Little Slam

Since the only Chinese general who was seriously fighting Japan last week declared that he could only hold out if aided by the League of Nations, world interest focused on the Clock Room of the Foreign Office at Paris.

In this ornate red & gold chamber, where the late Georges ("Tiger") Clemenceau promulgated the Covenant of the League of Nations in 1919, his ancient enemy Aristide Briand convened the League Council in extraordinary session last week. Twice before this autumn the Council had met at Geneva (TIME, Oct. 5; Oct. 26), had failed both times to pacify China and Japan.

A third failure, the assembled statesmen knew, would be catastrophic for League prestige. To prevent failure two Great Powers sent bigger men. Britain's new Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, replaced her former delegate, Viscount Cecil who last week took a back seat. For the U. S. famed Prentiss Gilbert, who sat with the Council in Geneva not daring to open his mouth, did not sit. Instead last week Ambassador Charles Gates Dawes opened and shut his resounding mouth in a nearby Paris hotel, represented the U. S. so potently that Council statesmen gathered in his suite for what almost became informal Council sessions between the regular League acts.

Formally Acting President Aristide Briand opened the Clock Room Council with a pledge that the League "will continue to seek a solution which will be equitable without tendential references"--upon uttering which words Old Brer Briand was seized with a violent fit of coughing.

No solution was officially proposed at the initial session (23 minutes) last week. But as Councilmen privately got to work the crisis which they must resolve contained these major elements:

P: Japan was in closest diplomatic touch with U. S. Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson, several times rumored last week to be on the point of negotiating a compromise with Ambassador Debuchi in Washington, though this did not receive official confirmation. The compromise was understood to be on "realistic lines," taking into consideration that anarchy would follow abrupt withdrawal of Japanese troops from Manchuria, yet striving to uphold China's more flagrantly violated rights; the compromise to lead to direct negotiations between China and Japan.

P: In Mukden, capital of Manchuria, the Japanese tried to make their occupation even more of a fait accompli last week by staging a parade of 10,000 Japanese and Chinese. The marchers carried banners begging continued Japanese occupation: "We Want Order!"

P: Fears by the Great Powers of Soviet intervention in Manchuria were considerably calmed last week by eye witness reports and official reassurances issued at Moscow by Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Maximovitch Litvinov. Hotly he emphasized the pledge of Russia's neutral intentions given two weeks ago (TIME, Nov. 9).

P: In China the failure of the "Canton Government" (unrecognized) and the Nanking Government (recognized by the Great Powers) to patch up their bitter quarrel, left the Chinese people last week still disunited and utterly without an army capable of defending Chinese rights and claims. In the game of Manchuria, Japan thus held so many trumps that the League Council, inclined at first to back China, was confronted last week by the problem of how to let Japan win by a little instead of a grand slam.

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