CO129-571-7 Sino-Japanese War- bombardment of road from Anglo-Chinese border to Canton 9-1-1938 - 28-1-1938 — Page 17

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agree that we should restrict those supplies which

this government is able to obtain by reason of our gp.und.7

neutrality.

Our League obligations permit us to sympathise with

incessant difficulties of Chinese government and this

attitude seems to have full support of current popular opinion

in Great Britain. Though we should not go out of our way

to provoke Japan nothing is to be gained by attempting to

placate her. British interests in Japanese dominated

territory would receive no more consideration simply because

we had thrown over central government. Japanese find us in

their way all along the line. Our only fault is that we

got there first. We are feeling their pressure at a hundred

points and a policy of weak conciliation will not get us

anywhere.

I hold further that it is to our definite

advantage to break Japanese stranglehold on Chinese coastline

by encouraging building up line of communication - road rail and

air-across Chinese Western frontier. Internal communication

system in West China is expanding rapidly under impulse of

government war needs and I believe it important to our future

trade to link up this system with Burma at as many points

as possible.

Addressed to Foreign office,repeated to Mission

and Saving to Feking.