Leytton Fact-finding Mission’s Activities In China And The Echoes In Chinese Society

For the mediation of contradiction, which began with the Manchurian Incidentabout Northeast between China and Japan, the League of Nations established theLeague of Nations fact-finding mission, composed of five countries, including Britain,France, the United States, Germany, Italy. The fact-finding mission headed by BritishLytton, it is also known as the Lytton-finding mission (hereinafter referred to as thefact-finding mission). Between March to September in1932, the fact-finding missioninvestigated the fact and wrote the survey report in China, and the initial and the finalreport officially released on May4,1932and October2,1932. Chinese communityresponse varies for the mission’s arrival and the report published, and made a hugeimpact on the KMT government’s foreign policy to the League of Nations and theChinese people of insight understanding of the League of Nations.The article is divided into four chapters: the first chapter, setting up thefact-finding mission’s background, including international environment and directmotivation of fact-finding mission. In1929, the capitalist world exploded the mostserious economic crisis in history. Due to the scarcity of domestic resources and thesmall market, Japan unable to rely on their own to resolve the crisis. Therefore, Japanattempted to use military means to usurp the Chinese northeast. After the preparationof public opinion and military, Japan launched the September18Incident, theNational Government appealed to the League of Nations immediately. After fourmonths of consultations, League of Nations set up a conflict truth-finding mission tocoordinate the Sino-Japanese conflict.Chapter two, the fact-finding mission, mainly for the survey of social conditionsin pre-war China, and the situation of Japan invaded China. Finding mission arrivedin Shanghai on March14,1932, and the mission left Shanghai to return to EuropeSeptember5,1932, the mission generally lasted about six months of the surveyconducted in China.Chapter three was about the content of two published surveys report. TheLytton-finding mission initial report was published on May4,1932, divided into twoarticles, the second was divided into three chapters, on the northeast current situationat that time said in great detail, especially in the Northeast militants in a relativelydetailed instructions. October2,1932, the mission final report released in Geneva,Nanjing and Tokyo, the text of about200,000words, divided into ten chapters of the introduction and text. The principles and recommendations in chapter one to chaptereight explained the survey the situation, the ninth and tenth chapters was the resolveissue of Northeast.Chapter four was about the views of the Chinese community, including thepublic opinion of the Kuomintang, the Communist Party and the intellectualelite-based.