ANNE X
CHINA SITUATION
AIDE MEMOIRE
1. At a meeting this morning 25th April at which the Commander-in-Chief Far East Station was in attendance, the Minister of Defence and the Chiefs of Staff considered whether the recent incident between British Forces and the Communists on the Yangtse should have any effect on our policy for Shanghai and Hong Kong.
2.
On the whole it was thought that this incident would not affect the conduct of Communists in Shanghai; the effects of such incidents in China were generally local. Furthermore the Communists would have need of foreign nationals to run the public utilities in Shanghai, apart from the general dependence of China on foreign trade. They were, therefore, unlikely to change their attitude which had been that foreign nationals should not leave China.
SHANGHAI
3. Nevertheless it must be recognised that if the Communists wished to stop foreign ships going up the River Whangpoo to Shanghai, they could very quickly do so by establishing artillery at the entrance. They might be in a position to do this within the next day or two. The meeting considered the possibility of attacking these batteries with aircraft but the Chiefs of Staff did not consider such an operation would be practicable.
4. The present policy for the British community at Shanghai which was agreed on some months ago is that British nationals should not be evacuated. Nevertheless although it was appreciated that the Communists would not wish the foreign communities, to leave, an emergency evacuation scheme was prepared in case of a complete break-down in all administrative services in the interval between the departure of the Nationalists and the establishment of government by the Communists. Warships are standing by at Shanghai now to implement these plans and .M.S. Belfast is standing by at Hong Kong to take two companies of infantry to guard points of embarkation should this be necessary.
5. In view of the possibility that the Communists might now prevent ali movement in the Whangpoo River, a very early decision ought to be taken on whether or not to stick to present plans. The French and Americans at Shanghai are also affected.
The ships at Shanghai are berthed away from the Bund so that their presence there does not appear provocative.
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