Circulated to the Cabinet by dire: 108 The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs [This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
F 4716/3027/10 |
No. 1.
November 8, 1926.
SECTION 1.
Sir O. Russell to Sir Austen Chamberlain.-(Received November 8.)
(No. 171.) Sir,
British Legation to the Holy See,
Rome, November 4, 1926. WITH reference to my despatch No. 167 of the 28th October, I have the honour to enclose a short memorandum by Mr. Randall, the Secretary of this Legation summarising a conversation with the Delegate Apostolic in China, Mgr. Costantiui. It seems that it was this able prelate who, against very consideralile opposition in China and in Rome, succeeded in persuading the Pope to make the remarkable new departure which is implied by the appointment of the six native Chinese bishops. There is no subject that more appeals to the present Pontiff than missions to non-Christian countries in comparison with this he shows a distinct indifference to political questions, and the Vatican treasury, which is not too well filled, can more easily be opened by requests for assistance for missions in China, Japan, and Asia generally than by any other appeal.
I have, &c.
ODO RUSSELL.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum.
IN a recent conversation I had with Mgr. Costantini he showed, as is now the fashion with representatives of the Holy See, an ostentatious indifference to current political questions. He admitted, however, that the policy of appointing six native Chinese as bishops, who represent only a beginning, was due to the conviction, formed after a long study of political conditions, that a new China was being born and that anybody which was indifferent to the national feelings of the Chinese was fated to lose any influence it might possess. For certain European countries it was painful to have to face this fact. The Church, with no old-established material interests to defend, had had no great difliculty in alapting herself to the new order, and the excellent effect of the policy of the Holy See would be even more increased when there were not six Chinese bishops, but three or four times that number. For the national virtues of the Chinese Mgr. Costantini expressed great admiration and declared his conviction that they would, in the long run, be proof against both Russian and Japanese aggression. There was, of course, a latent conflict between both Moscow and Tokyo, China being the immense prize, but the powers of Chinese resistance were extra- ordinary, and not only were they an integral part of the national character, but they were directed by a very intelligent appreciation of both Russian and Japanese motives. Of the Bolshevisation of China he had not the slightest fear, while in regard to Japanese patronage he said that the Chinese realised that the cry of the Far East for the Far Easterners' was only another way of saying "the Far East for ourselves." Sporadic Bolshevik propaganda was a danger, both for the Church and for good European relations with the Chinese people. In the one case as in the other, however, he thought the national genius of the Chinese could be relied upon and if it was assisted by a frank recognition of the fact that China is no longer a colonial country the perils of xenophobia would be immensely reduced.
A. W. G. RANDALI.
*1
[1450 h-1]