2365/26.
28
In considering this action, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Government of Canton has not been recognised in any way as a goverment by His Majesty's Government, and also that the proposed blockade of Canton is not intended as an act of war, but merely as a method of applying coercion in order to oblige the Canton authorities to desist from
illegal action in attempting to interfere with the liberty of
foreign vessels to exercise their treaty rights of trade at
Canton,
It should not be overlooked in the first place that, if
this action is taken, any member of the League of Nations,
including China herself, would be entitled to bring the matter
before the Council under paragraph 2 of article 11 of the
Covenant. If the action taken at Canton were a joint action
with one or more of the other great Powers, there would be
less risk of embarrassment at the Council and less danger
of an attempt to isolate His Majesty's Government. Un the
other hand, it would be difficult for the Peking Government to
protest at the Council against such action by the Powers at
Canton, because it would be clear that the action was rendered
necessary by the failure of that Government to put an end to
illegal action in its own territory. Ilevertheless, for the
reasons given in paragraph 3 of the Foreign Office letter of
January 28th, Sir Austen Chamberlain thinks that an appeal by
China to the League, however ill-founded, would merely add
complication to an already baffling problem and ought not
lightly to be provoked.
In the second place, it is true that were
a pacific blockade declared there would probably be no
difficulty in dealing with the ships of such Powers as
joined/