The member governments on the League Council were unwilling to take forceful action, however. They denied Chinese pleas for help and instead established the Lytton Commission to investigate whether Japan had indeed committed aggression. The commission reported in the affirmative a year later but still the Council dallied. Citizen groups responded to the League’s inaction by advocating sanctions and promoting consumer boycotts of Japanese goods. The FOR and other US groups urged the Hoover administration to impose sanctions. The National Council for Prevention of War supported legislation to ban commercial and financial transactions with Japan or any state that violated the Pact of Paris.
The WILPF urged the imposition of an arms embargo on wartime belligerents. In Congress the House Foreign Affairs Committee initially approved an arms embargo Bill, but pressure from the arms industry and the armed services killed the measure. In January 1932 the Hoover administration responded to the growing public pressure for action by enunciating the Stimson doctrine, which declared that the United States would not recognize any territorial changes achieved through military aggression. This was a positive step, many peace advocates agreed, but most wanted more forceful action. The US statement of non-recognition had no impact on Japan, which proceeded to consolidate its position in Manchuria and landed troops in Shanghai.
During the Ethiopia crisis of 1935–6 peace groups again demanded a forceful international response to Italian aggression. They sharply condemned the inaction of Western governments and demanded that the League of Nations impose sanctions. In France both the APD and the LICP urged the application of vigorous League of Nations sanctions. In several countries pacifist and socialist groups called for boycotts, strikes, and nonviolent direct action to block shipments to Italy. In Britain the LNU, the WILPF, and many other groups urged Whitehall to take the lead in mobilizing pressure against Italy.
Because of the results of the Peace Ballot Prime Minister Baldwin and Foreign Secretary Hoare were under pressure to act. Said the previous foreign secretary Austen Chamberlain,“If we edged out of collective action of this kind, a great wave of opinion would sweep the Government out of power.” In the United States the National Council for Prevention of War and other groups also supported League of Nations action. Pacifist and internationalist groups joined together in urging that the Roosevelt administration impose sanctions and cut off the flow of arms to Italy.
In response to these pressures the United States agreed to halt arms exports to Italy and urged a “moral embargo” on trade and the supply of raw materials. The British government went to the League of Nations and in November 1935 convinced the Council to adopt a resolution urging the imposition of sanctions. League measures were never implemented, however, as few governments were willing to incur the costs and risks of enforcing the measures. A cut-off of oil supplies could have crippled Mussolini’s war machine and hobbled Italy’s economy, but enforcement would have required a naval blockade. Neither Britain nor France was prepared for such a show of force. Diplomats in Paris and London feared that pressuring Mussolini would drive Italy into an alliance with Germany. Economic interests further weakened the will for sanctions.
Despite the Roosevelt administration’s appeal for a moral embargo, US corporations increased their trade with Italy. Shipments of oil and strategic materials such as copper, iron, and scrap steel rose sharply. The White House acted to cut off government financing for such trade, but the shipments continued. As historian Robert Divine observed, “It seemed as if American businessmen were intent on proving [Senator Gerald] Nye’s thesis that they favored profits above peace.” Business groups in other countries also sought to cash in on Italy’s war needs. In the end the French government stalled, the United States stood on the sidelines, and the British government was unwilling to press forward on its own.
The Peace Ballot
