[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
Printed for the Cabinet. February 1927.
SECRET.
Copy No. 41
C.P. 41 (27).
(Reference: Cabinet 4 (27), Conclusion 1 (a).)
I CIRCULATE the draft of such a letter to the League of Nations
on the Chinese situation as might be sent if the Cabinet decides to act upon Lord Cecil's suggestion.
Lord Cecil has been good enough to revise the draft.
Foreign Office, February 3, 1927.
A. C.
Sir,
I venture to send you for the information of members of the League of Nations the following statement of British policy in China:-
The
Since 1922 British policy in China has been guided mainly by the letter and spirit of the agreements then reached at the Washington Conference. principal Treaty Powers there agreed among themselves, in conjunction with the representatives of the Chinese Government, that their future policy should be guided by certain general principles designed to safeguard the integrity and independence of China, to promote her political and economic development and the rehabilitation of her finances. It was agreed to grant her certain increases on her treaty tariff in order to provide the revenue required for these purposes. It was further agreed that a commission should examine the question of extra- territoriality with a view to amending the system now in force by the elimination of abuses and accretions and by the removal of unnecessary limitations on China's sovereignty.
2. Such is the Washington Conference policy of His Majesty's Government and of the other Washington Treaty Powers, as defined in the statement communicated by the British Chargé d'Affaires to the representatives of the Powers at Peking on the 18th December and published on the 26th December, 1926. As regards general principles, His Majesty's Government still adhere to this policy; but its complete success depended on co-operation between the Powers concerned and internal unity under a single Central Government in China. Unfortunately, since 1922, China has become more disunited than ever. The Canton Government was in 1922 confined to the city of Canton. Even then it was in revolt against the Central Government at Peking, and did not consider itself bound by the undertakings entered into by the Central Government's representatives at Washington. That Canton Nationalist Government has now increased its authority over the greater part of the country south of the Yang-tsze River, and claims to be recognised as the only Government of all China. This fact has modified the hypothesis upon which the Washington policy was based.
3. Further, the extremists of the Canton Nationalist party have singled out the British people for an implacable campaign of calumny and boycott. Indeed, enmity against Britain has been deliberately and persistently cultivated in order to promote the solidarity of the Nationalist party and stimulate its aggressive spirit.
4. The events of 1925 provided the anti-British propagandists with the kind of material most useful for them. The Shanghai International Settlement is governed by an elective Municipality which was at that time presided over by an
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