When Japan invaded Manchuria → China → appealed to LON → for international support. Oct 1931 → Leagues council → passed resolution → by 13 votes to 1 → calling on Japan to withdraw its troops.
- only vote against resolution → cast by Japan. Japanese → claimed → they were not invading China → but acting in defence → to keep peace → since China was in state of anarchy.
For LON → this was serious test (assessment on whether it could solve international dispute and force aggressor state to back down)
Sept 1932 → full year after the invasion → League → presented Lytton report on incident.
- Conclusion was clear → Japan had acted unlawfully + Manchuria should be returned to Chinese.
Feb 1933 → Instead of withdrawing from Manchuria → Japanese announced → they intended to occupy more of China.
- Maintained → this was necessary → to defend their territories.
24th Feb → Lytton report → approved by 42 votes to 1 in → Leagues general assembly.
- Only Japan voted against it.
- Japan rejected Lytton report → resigned from League on 27th March.
Leagues economic sanctions → powerless→ without support of US → Japans main trading partner. Britain → did not sanction Japan → seemed more interested in maintaining → good relationship with Japan. League → could not ban arms sale to Japan → because member countries could not agree on that.
- they were worried that Japan → would retaliate + escalate the situation
Britain + France → would not risk their navies or armies in war → to stop Japan. Only US and USSR → would have had resources to remove Japanese from Manchuria by force → but they were not League Members.
- USSR even sold railway line in northern Manchuria to Japanese.