ABSTRACT
The machinery for the settlement of disputes was ground into the dust of Manchuria by the Japanese; the Disarmament Conference met from 1932 to 1934 only to contemplate its own coffin, while Arthur Henderson pleaded, Ramsay MacDonald orated, the French sulked and the Germans threatened. Japan was signatory to the Kellogg-Briand Pact of Paris which had 'outlawed' war as 'an instrument of national policy', and to the Nine-Power Washington Treaty of 1921, which committed all the interested nations to the policy of the 'open door' in China. Japan's actions in Manchuria from 1931 to 1933 violated all these undertakings, but, unfortunately, Japan could put up a marginally legal defence, at least for her initial interference. Japanese militarists skilfully exploited the economic and political confusion in which the world and their own country were then immersed, to impose upon Japan, China and the world a policy it was impossible to reverse.
