Consequences

• Japan had economic rights in Manchuria
• It was too far away from Geneva to be an issue
• Japan was a powerful member of the League and people believed them to keep peace
• People believed it was a good thing to introduce political order to China
• Control of Manchuria holds a block against Communist aggression
• Lord Lytton went to the area and published a report in October 1932, confirming Japan was in the wrong
• Japan ignored the findings and left the League
• Japan invaded the Jehol region in February 1933 and then invaded the rest of the country in 1937
• By 1938 most major Chinese cities were controlled by the Japanese army
• The League of Nations was deemed as a failure
• People still believed it was capable of resolving conflicts within Europe
• Mussolini and Hitler began to wonder how to get around the League, because it had failed to stop an act of war with one of its own members
• If there really was a terrorist attack it could be argued that the Japanese were restoring order in an area where they had existing rights
• Members of the League couldn't afford to send troops so far away to fight someone else's battles. Britain and France were still facing the economic effects of the Depression
• The League could apply economic sanctions, but as Japan's main trading partner was the USA, which wasn't in the League, they weren't likely to work
• The nearest powerful country to Manchuria was the USSR, but since it had not been allowed to join the League it couldn't be called upon to help