50
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The
55. On the 3rd January Sir F. Aglen left Peking unostentatiously to proceed via Shanghai to Hankow for
a conference with Comrade Ch'ên and next day occurred
the Hankow riot, which resulted in the occupation of
the British Concession at that treaty-port by the
Nationalist Government. This affair seems to have been
due to instructions which reached Canton from Moscow
on the 30th December that "all their associations were
to marcher à outrance against us at Hankow" (Peking
telegram to Foreign Office, dated 5th January).
Hankow incident was quickly followed by that at Kiu-
kiang and resulted in the mission of Messrs. O'Malley
and Teichman from Peking to Hankow. From this point
onwards the endeavour to obviate a similar catastrophe
at Shanghai became the chief British preoccupation.
The effect of the events at Hankow was immediately felt in Peking, where the French, American and Japanese Ministers were aghast at this blow to foreign prestige. Sir Miles Lampson had a long talk with the Japanese Minister on the 7th January, when the latter summed up Chinese psychology as only capable of understanding reason backed by force. He made no secret of his per-
sonal opinion that we should all be driven to use force
sooner or later, though he was not sure that the Japanese Government had yet realised this. The surrender of Hankow was, he thought, a fatal mistake. He hankered
after joint action by Great Britain, Japan, France and America. Sir Miles asked him whether Japan would join us if we suggested (say) a blockade of the Yangtsze and Canton, the only shipping of importance in the Yangtsze
being
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