[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
CHINA
Cypher telegram to Sir M. Lampson, (Peking).
Foreign Office, 12.35 p.m. 3rd May 1927.
No. 341.
189
My immediately preceding telegram.
For your personal and private information, the
following are the main considerations which have guided
His Majesty's Government in arriving at the decisions
communicated to you therein.
1. It is evident that the government which Chen
represents is a dwindling factor in the general situation.
It has lost control over Nanking where the outrages occurred and probably has not the power, even if it possessed the will, to carry out any demands made by the
Powers or fulfil any promises or undertakings which it
might make.
2. It has been impossible even after this lapse of time to arrive at any unanimous agreement, not only with the other foreign Powers, but actually among the chief British authorities concerned as to the procedure to be adopted or the measures to be taken. His Majesty's Government themselves fully share the decided views of
the Commander-in-Chief and of the Chiefs of Staff that a bombardment of Hanyang arsenal would be inexpedient. They understand that there is valuable Japanese property in the immediate vicinity of the arsenal, which must almost inevitably suffer some damage in spite of all precautions taken, while a proceeding of this nature must also carry
with