CO129-502-7 China- general situation 4-3-1927 - 26-4-1927 — Page 34

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.

Printed for the Committee of Imperial Defence. April 1927.

13

36

SECRET.

792-B.

(Also Papers Nos. C.O.S. 80

and C.P. 127 (27).)

COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

THE SITUATION IN CHINA-APRIL 14, 1927.

Possible Sanctions.

Copy No. 33

INTERIM REPORT BY THE CHIEFS OF STAFF.

we

AT a Meeting of the Cabinet, held on the 13th April, the Chief of the Naval Staff

made a statement in regard to the effectiveness of the sanctions had hitherto proposed. He recalled that at the Meeting at the House of Commons on the 4th April (Cabinet 23 (27), Conclusion 1) he, on behalf of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff, had warned the Cabinet in regard to the adverse effect on sanctions of any serious delay. The situation had now changed considerably, and this statement required qualification. In view of the successes of the Northern Chinese, the period of ten days he had then mentioned could perhaps be considerably extended, but it had to be borne in mind that if the Northern forces gained possession of the places where sanctions were to have been inflicted, these particular sanctions would no longer be applicable. Moreover, to take the proposed sanctions at the present moment against such objects as forts or arsenals, which were likely in the near future to fall into the hands of the Northern Chinese, might merely have the effect of antagonising the Northerners, who might be counting on utilising them for their own purposes. If, on the other hand, the Southern Chinese were to regain the ascendancy, it might be that the time within which the proposed sanctions could be applied effectively would be extremely limited, in which case, either as Chief of the Naval Staff or as Senior Officer of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff, it might be his duty to warn the Cabinet of the need of an urgent decision. In any event, Lord Beatty felt that if isolated action on our part were contemplated, a different form of sanctions was required. They ought to be applied somewhere out of the line of the Northern advance, possibly, for example, at Canton. He thought that the circumstances were so changed that the whole question of sanctions ought to be entirely reconsidered.

The Cabinet accordingly agreed-

"In regard to the form of sanctions:

That the Committee of Chiefs of Staff should meet to re-examine the question in the light of the present situation on the alternative hypotheses of the sanctions being undertaken by an international force or by this country alone.

The Chiefs of Staff Committee were asked to keep this subject constantly under review, as the situation changes from time to time."

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