§ Mr. LANSBURY(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can now inform the House as to the steps which have been taken at Shanghai to carry out the proposals contained in the recommendations of the League of Nations?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir John Simon)The House is aware that on the 11th of March the special Assembly of the League of Nations adopted without dissent a resolution which, besides laying down the principles which must govern the attitude of the League of Nations to the Far Eastern dispute, set up a committee of 19 members, presided over by M. Hymans, the President of the Assembly, to act on behalf of and under the supervision of the Assembly in the matter. The first step, of course, is to endeavour to make completely effective the cessation of hostilities at Shanghai. The reports which have been received indicate that, apart from a little skirmishing which has practically, if not entirely, ceased, the cessation of hostilities has, in effect, been achieved.
As regards the negotiations which were contemplated as the next step, the Assembly Committee met yesterday, and I understand that it had before it the information that negotiations for this purpose were in actual progress at Shanghai. The Chinese and Japanese representatives there have been meeting during the last day or two, on the invitation of Sir Miles Lampson, with him and the representatives of Italy, France and the United States. My information is that these conversations made some hopeful progress, though they have also indicated some difficulties. The Assembly Committee is meeting again, I believe, to-day, and I sincerely hope that, with the help of the good offices of the representatives of the four Powers a definite result may be achieved and announced very shortly. At the moment, however, it is impossible to speak with complete confidence as to this, and I am sure that the House will agree that it would be very undesirable to prejudice the chance of final agreement by a further statement to-day on points of controversy.