This much-needed gesture has shown the Chinese our sympathy with them in their struggle and will be of use to both countries in maintaining the stability of the Chinese dollar. It is then satisfactory to see from this and other recent statements that HING. now take the view that our concern in this war is a direct one and it is to be hoped that they will hold fast to this view and to the best of their ability resist all encroachments by Japan upon our interests in China.
Unless at the end of the war the Chinese both like and respect us, our trade will naturally suffer. Our Government does not seem really to understand the weakness as well as the strength of the Japanese character and, while weyall appreciate the irrefutable objections to a policy of bluff. that is no reason for being bluffed and there have been too many needless cases of their being bluffed by the Japanese.
The Test of the Yangtze The exclusion of British shipping from the Yangtze and latterly from the Pearl River has been the subject of frequent representations, both locally and in London. I personally look upon the question of the Yangtze as being a symbol of Japanese success or failure in their attacks on our position in China and it is a question, whether they need have been allowed to keep it closed so long. Their plea of military necessity is absurd, for the figures reproduced in our report, showing how Japanese exports to Central China have reached the totals at which they stood prior to the outbreak of war with China, seem to dispose effectually of the Japanese contention that only goods needed by their forces are going up river. Incidentally I may say that, in response to a request from us for documentary evidence of Japanese commercial activities on the Yangtze, we have received valuable photographs of various documents, These have been forwarded to the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade.
Communications with Hankow have been most difficult and the position of the local community, to whose constance we must all take off our hats, is still most uncomfortable. Their point of view is well expressed in the words of the Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce there, "it must not be supposed that we in Hankow are either ignorant of, or deliberately overlook, the wider preoccupations of H.M. Government and the delicacy of the situation to be handled. We do feel, however, that a blunter insistence on one of our fundamental rights is overdue."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.