Date: 8 March 1932
Location: Geneva
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
The universality of the League and the diversity within it – patience and understanding required for dealing with the Sino-Japanese dispute – history oflndia’s intimate relations with China and Japan – the commercial ties – appeal to both the parties to seek peace the primary duty of the General Assembly is to mediate – India’s hope for a true friendship between China and Japan – abide by the principles of the Covenant of the League.
It has already been said that the universality of the League of Nations is at once its weakness and its strength. We might equally say that its universality creates problems as well as solves them, because the League comprises a diversity which is hard for any individual mind to grasp. That diversity is even more marked in Asia than in Western countries; but the fundamental laws of justice and fair play, forebearance and goodwill apply in the East just as much as in the West. Our need in approaching the grave task before us is, above all, patience and understanding. I come from a country which, like other countries whose representatives have spoken here, has a tradition of friendship with both the Parties to the case that is before the Assembly; but much more than that, China is our good neighbour in the north and in the east, and with her province of Turkestan we have had, since time immemorial, friendly cultural and economic relations. India has behind her a long history of intimate association with China and Japan. The mutual influence of the three countries in religion, in art and in literature has endured since time immemorial.
There is a town in my country which I know well and which contains one of the most sacred shrines of Buddhism. There you will find, side by side in common worship, Buddhist pilgrims, not only from Burma, where that great and ancient religion holds firm sway, but from the more distant homes of the Buddhist both in China and Japan.
So too in art and thought, in literature and creative work, we find the living traces of that mutual influence. Just as the Indian Buddha has influenced Chinese and Japanese thought, so the great Confucius has left his living and eternal mark on India.
Equally we have been drawn together by the ties of commerce that have grown stronger and more complex with the march of modern civilisation. Memories are long in the East, and India will have memories of all she has given and received in inter change with Further Asia, and cannot now be backward in pressing earnestly the cause of reconciliation in the spirit of the thought which has inspired the three countries alike.
The facts of history give me a platform from which I can rightly and earnestly appeal alike to my friends of China and Japan to seek the road to peace, reconciliation, acljustment and friendship, and to economic and intellectual co-operation in the permanent interests of both. The leaders of China and Japan must realise that, without this friendship and co-operation, the future can never be as happy and as peaceful for either of those great countries. We are here to help them by undertaking the work of mediation and to help to lay the foundation of a surer concili ation for the future.
Mediation is the first duty laid upon this Assembly by the terms of the Covenant. It is true that the Covenant prescribes other courses of action to be followed as circumstances develop, but, if we are faithfully to perform our first duty of friendly mediation, we must not let ourselves be deflected by thoughts of any other duties that may later devolve upon us.
If we do not concentrate with a single mind upon mediation, we shall not only be prejudging the issues; we shall fall into a far greater error. No mediator can hope to succeed unless he sets himself to win and hold the confidence of both parties. He may too easily forfeit their confidence if he allows himself to be influenced by the knowledge that he may later have to form other conclusions. Yet if once the parties lose confidence in him, he will not only have failed completely in his first duty, but will have raised formidable obstacles in the path of further progress.
Therefore I would urge the Assembly, not only to concentrate on its first and vital immediate task of mediation, but to hold fast to the principles which alone can guarantee its success.
Is it too much to ask that the two Parties on their side should co-operate by placing themselves freely in the hands of the mediators, confident that the mediation will be carried out in a spirit of complete fairness and impartiality for the permanent peace and friendship of the Far East?
India hopes earnestly that mediation will be but the first step towards true friendship between China and Japan. To achieve its aim, mediation must be based, not on methods of expediency, but on clear guiding principles. Where else are we to seek these principles but in the Covenant itself, which is the mainspring of all our efforts here? All the signatories have fully weighed and understood the obligations which it lays on them; but that fact is perhaps not sufficiently appreciated. Let us make it clear beyond dispute to the world as well as to ourselves. I gladly support the suggestion made by the representative of the United Kingdom that we should seize the opportunity to reaffirm in all their bearings the fundamental principles that underlie the Covenant.
If that suggestion can win united support, we shall lay a sure foundation on which an edifice of lasting peace, friendship and co-operation in the Far East can be constructed.
Source: League of Nations OfficialJ ournal, Special Supplement No. 101: Records of the Special Session of the Assembly Convened in Virtue of Article 15 of the Covenant at the Request of the Chinese Government, Geneva, Vol. 1, 1932, pp. 76-7.
The speech was made in the fifth meeting of the General Commission on Tuesday, 8 March, at about 4.30 p.m.
On the Sino:Japanese conflict see W.W. Willoughby, The Sino-Japanese Contro versy and the League of Nations, Baltimore, 1935, and S. R. Smith, The Manchurian Crisis, 1931-32: A Tragedy in International Relations, New York, 1948.