من
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC BAJESTY'S GOVERN ̈ENT).
SECRET.
C.P
3 (27).
CABINET.
THE SITUATION IN CHINA,
COPY NO:
44-
225
MEMORANDUM BY THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE
COUNCIL.
1.
It seems to me that the rear-guard action which
we are now fig.ting in Chine is being fought as well as it
can be fought; and I have no immediate change of policy
to su gest. But rear-guard actions, however well fought,
are apt to end either in unconditional surrender or
in the unpleasant operation of dying in the last ditch.
The question therefore arises whether, if things go on
from bad to worse, any alterative is open to us.
2.
we are ready, as I understand it, to treat an effective
Goverment in any part of China as the best temporary
substitute for a non-existent central Government, without
prejudice to China's rights to say for herself whether she
wishes to be a unity or a multiplicity of independent states.
3. The most efficient of these de facto Governments is the
one that predominates in the south; and it is on our
relations with it that the situation for the present
rainly turns
4.
We have made it clear to those in authority that we are
prepared to do our part in hastening and supplementing the
policy of the Washington Conference so unfortunately
postponed, first by the French delay in ratification, and
then by the vanishing into nothingness of the Central
Government.
We have also adurbrated our general willingness pro-
foundly to modify existing Treaties: though we have never
agreed either to regard these Treaties as non-existent,
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