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They will value our friendship and make real sacrifices to maintain it if we approach them in a spirit of real helpfulness and friendship, and convince them that we are talking straight and mean what we say.
I have assumed Chinese hostility to our retention of
HONGKONG for very good reasons, and far from any dislike of the
Chinese people in general. It is a fact that Free China is at
present controlled by the Kuomintang and that to the Kuomintang, HONGKONG is terra irredenta, as are other parts of Asia once under Chinese rule or strong Chinese influence. The Kuomintang is a revolutionary Party and many of its adherents are political fanatics and agitators. Among them are many who think of the
British Colonial Empire as a menace and many are our enemies
and harbour inimical thoughts and ambitions. If given their head they would by appealing to Kuomintang revolutionary principles find little difficulty in arousing the fundamentally anti-foreign Chinese to fury with us. They have done so in the past in alliance with Russian Communists and could do so again. If, in weakness, we turned our backs to them they would be at our heels like a pack of Jackals.
However, Free China has outgrown the flush of the revolutionary spirit. She has been chastened by long years of devastating War and by the spectre of internal problems, still unsolved, notably the deep-seated quarrel between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Uncertain though our future may sometimes seem, that of CHINA is far more threatening. Many of the Chinese leaders have learned wisdom and will be inclined to consolidate
their position and to curb the enthusiasm of their fanatics. The dreams of Chinese expansion and of the eventual recovery of "China irredenta" will in truth remain buried in a deep racial instinct and memory, but they will be smothered and controlled by an innate sense of what is practical and feasible. Dreams will be renounced for the substance of achievenebt, the consolidation of real gains and of the friendships and alliances under the shelter of which she can rebuild and recover. But only if we can convince them that we are strong, that we are fundamentally friendly and
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