This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
Printed for the Cabinet. May 1927.
SECRET.
Copy No. 39
C.P. 156 (27).
WE have had some discussion as to the supply of arms to this or that Chinese general without any very clear result. The subject is now raised again by the Governor of Hong Kong, and I think it necessary to ask for a definite Cabinet decision.
I circulate a memorandum which has been prepared in the Foreign Office by my instructions in order that Ministers may have before them all the necessary information.
Personally, I hold that our policy of neutrality among the factions has been and continues to be right. Nothing else has prevented us at one time or another from backing the wrong horse, and it is still too soon to pick the winner.
Open support of a particular leader or party would embroil us with all others, and quite possibly unite them all against him or it.
Finally, I, at any rate, could give no guarantee that any arms supplied would not sooner or later be turned against us by the party to whom they were supplied or taken from that party and used against us by others.
Foreign Office, May 16, 1927.
A. C.
60
ARMS EMBARGO AND SUPPLY OF ARMS TO CANTON.
MEMORANDUM.
THE provision of arms for the Cantonese General, Li Chai-sum, to use against the "Reds" has been strongly recommended by the Governor of Hong Kong and our Acting Consul-General at Canton. Further, the Portuguese Government, who are concerned for the safety of their colony of Macao and have also been approached by General Li, have enquired both here and at Hong Kong regarding our attitude. It is understood that the French Government have also been approached.
CC
This question raises the particular issue of the China Arms Embargo and the general principle of neutrality towards the various contending factions in China.
As regards the Arms Embargo, this was an agreement entered into in 1919 by certain Powers effectively to restrain their subjects and citizens from exporting to, or importing into, China arms and munitions of war and material destined exclusively for their manufacture, until the establishment of a Government whose authority was recognised throughout the whole country." The Powers concerned were Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, United States, Russia (non-Soviet), Brazil, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Some of these Powers interpreted their obligations very loosely; other Powers notably Soviet Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Norway were under no obligation and have exported arms freely to China, while the embargo Powers have had their hands tied. The Foreign Office, feeling that the embargo acted unfairly towards British merchants, and in some ways prejudicially to Great Britain's wider political interests in China, have from time to time examined the position in order to see whether it could be made more satisfactory. The fundamental difficulty has been the divided state of China, and the fact that arms sold or given to any one Chinese faction would be a departure from our policy of neutrality and an intervention in Chinese domestic affairs. The latest instructions on the subject were those sent to His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the 13th April, 1926. They were to the effect that when it was quite clear that the psychological moment had arrived, and that a fairly stable Government was in power, we would proceed to replace the Arms Embargo by a policy of applying to British subjects the Chinese law prohibiting the import of
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