SYMBOLISM AS DIPLOMACY: THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN’S CHINA POLICY DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PACIFIC WAR
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09592290590916149
ISSN1557-301X
Autores Tópico(s)Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies
ResumoAbstract Under normal circumstances a nation has to have strength and power to achieve effective diplomacy. However, the year 1942 was far from normal in terms of American-British-Chinese relations. It was a particularly difficult and critical time from Britain's point of view because of the utter need to sustain China's war effort against Japan while it concentrated on fighting against Germany, and because of the necessity to address the desire of the United States, on which Britain was heavily dependent for lend-lease materials, to accommodate the ever increasing demand of China. This paper attempts to show how Britain tried to deal with this trying situation, not without reluctance at times, by the employment of symbolism as diplomacy, characterized by praise, flattery, honors of various kinds and so on, to tide itself over the first year of the Pacific War until the war tide began to turn in the Allies' favor early in 1943. Notes 1. For United States' policy towards China up to Pearl Harbor, see, for example, C. R. Kitts, The United States odyssey in China, 1784–1990 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991), pp.1–40. 2. E. S. K. Fung, The diplomacy of imperial retreat: Britain's South China policy, 1924–1931 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1991). 3. This point is clearly made in D. Reynolds, The creation of the Anglo-American alliance 1937–41: A study in competitive co-operation (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982), p.294. 4. Hsi-sheng Ch'i, "Chiang Kai-shek and Franklin D Roosevelt," in C. A. van Minnen and J. F. Sears (eds.), FDR and his contemporaries (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), p.128. 5. Chan Lau Kit-ching, "The abrogation of British extraterritoriality in China 1942–43: A study of Anglo-American-Chinese relations," Modern Asian Studies 11, 2 (1977), 260–1. The American ambassador in China, Clarence Gauss, agreed that of all the military reverses, "the fall of Hong Kong was psychologically the most serious," Gauss to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, 17 January 1942, 740.0011 Pacific War/1667: Telegram, in Department of State, Foreign relations of the United States (hereafter FRUS), 1942, China (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1956), pp.4–5. Details of the fall of Hong Kong are found in P. Snow, The fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese occupation (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), pp.53–148. The fall of Singapore is dealt with in M. H. Murfett et al., Between two oceans: A military history of Singapore from first settlement to final British withdrawal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp.175–247. Also see S. Wonton, Lord Hailey, the Colonial Office and the politics of race and empire in the Second World War: The loss of white prestige (Houndmills, Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 2000), pp.75–7. 6. Through Ambassador Gauss and other American officials, the American government was fully aware of the intense anti-British sentiment in Chinese government circles. See, for example, Gauss to Hull, No. 389, 740.0011 Pacific War/2497, in FRUS, ibid., pp.35–6. 7. According to William Roger Louis, a prominent scholar on British imperial and colonial history, Roosevelt "disliked British Imperialism, pure and simple," and his "anti-colonialism was clearly apparent to the British," Imperialism at bay: The United States and the decolonization of the British Empire 1941–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), p.147. 8. Apart from India, Roosevelt "placed particular importance on the future of Hong Kong," J. J. Sbrega, Anglo-American relations and colonialism in East Asia, 1941–1945 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1983), p.74. For the role of Hong Kong in Anglo-American diplomacy during the Pacific War, see Chan Lau Kit-ching, "The Hong Kong question during the Pacific War (1941–45)," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 2 (October 1973): 56–78; and "The United States and the question of Hong Kong, 1941–45," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 19 (1979): 1–20. 9. Archibald Clark Kerr, British ambassador in China, to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, telegram 731, secret and important, 29 December 1941, Foreign Office (hereafter FO) 371/27605. 10. Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State, Maxwell M. Hamilton, 29 January, 1942, 893.51/7397 2/5, FRUS, 1942, China, pp.452–3. 11. For example, A. N. Young, financial expert attached to the United States embassy in Chungking during the war, China and the helping hand (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp.221–3; and China's war time finance and inflation 1937–1945 (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1965), pp.109–10. Also see R. Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American foreign policy 1932–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), p.330. 12. For details of the long, drawn out negotiations, see Chan Lau Kit-ching, "The Anglo-Chinese loan negotiations (1941–1944) — A study of Britain's relations with China during the Pacific War," in Papers on Far Eastern History 9 (March 1974): 101–35. The British ambassador to Washington, Lord Halifax, made specific reference to Britain's most unenviable situation over the matter in his confidential dispatch for the year 1942, in T. E. Hachey (ed.), Confidential dispatches: Analyses of America by the British ambassador 1939–1945 (Evanston, IL: New University Press, 1973), p.73. 13. See Britain's difficulties, especially those over the future of Hong Kong, in Chan, 'The abrogation of British extraterritoriality in China 1942–43: A study of Anglo-American-Chinese Relations", pp.257–91. A good account of the process leading to Britain's compromise over Hong Kong in the extraterritoriality negotiations is found in A. J. Whitfield, Hong Kong, empire and the Anglo-American alliance at war, 1941–45 (Houndsmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), pp.86–99. 14. Sir George Sansom to Ashley Clarke, 26 October 1942, FO 371/31627. 15. Ashley Clarke; writing from the British Embassy in Washington, to Sir J. Brenan, confidential, 12 May 1942, FO 371/31626. 16. Clark Kerr to Eden, dispatch, unnumbered, 3 February 1942, FO371/31645. 17. Memorandum by Ashley Clarke, 16 June 1942, ibid. 18. This turning of the tide is dealt with in the introductory note to the speech given by Lord Halifax at Baltimore on 7 December 1942, The American speeches of the Earl of Halifax, with a preface by H. F. Armstrong (New York: Oxford University Press, 1947), p.208. The turn of the allied war fortune is also clearly reflected in the title The tide turns of the volume for 1943 of The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, compiled with special materials and explanatory notes by S. I. Rosenman (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1950). 19. K. Sainsbsury, Churchill and Roosevelt at war: The war they fought and the peace they hoped to make (New York: New York University Press, 1994), p.166. For more on the restraining influence of Eden and the Foreign Office under him on Churchill, see E. Banker, Churchill and Eden at war (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978), p.306. Also see Whitfield, Hong Kong, empire and the Anglo-American alliance at war, 1941–45, p.50. 20. See Cripps's letter to Madame Chiang, private and personal, 15 June 1942, enclosed in M. G. Russell, War Cabinet Offices, to V. G. Lawford, Foreign Office, 15 June 1942, in FO 371/31626. Also see S. Burgess, Stafford Cripps: A political life (London: Victor Gollancz, 1999), pp.161–2. 21. Minutes of M. Peterson and V. G. Lawford, 25 June and 25 August respectively, on Cripps to Madame Chiang, ibid. 22. For details of Britain's attitude towards the Chiangs' visit to India and American support of Chiang Kai-shek over India, see Chan Lau Kit-ching, "Britain's reaction to Chiang Kai-shek's visit to India, February 1942," in The Australian Journal of Politics and History 21:2 (August 1975): 52–61; W. R. Louis, "American anti-colonialism and the dissolution of the British Empire," in W. R. Louis and H. Bull (eds.), The "special relationship": Anglo-American relations since 1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp.264–8. Also see J. J. Sbrega, "The anticolonial views of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941–1945," in H. D. Rosenbaum and E. Bartelme (eds.), Franklin D. Roosevelt: The man, the myth, the era, 1882–1945 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987), p.192. 23. Chan, "Britain's reaction to Chiang Kai-shek's visit to India, February 1942," p.59. 24. Arthur Taylor, Secretary of the China Inland Mission, to prime minister, 21 January 1942, in A. Bevier, Prime Minister Office, to V. G. Lawford, Foreign Office, 24 January 1942, and Lawford to Bevier, 31 January 1942, FO 371/31654. Sometimes, British public opinion even "ranked China ahead of America in importance" in "winning the war for the Allies," Whitfield, Hong Kong, empire and the Anglo-American alliance at war, 1941–45, pp.50–51. 25. Clark Kerr, telegram 75, 16 January 1942, ibid. 26. J. S. Sterndale Bennett's minute on Clark Kerr's telegram, 2 February 1942, ibid. 27. Eden to Seymour, telegram 306, 4 March 1942, ibid. 28. Eden to Ross, 24 February 1942, ibid. 29. Seymour to Eden, telegram 301, 12 March 1942, ibid. 30. Eden to Ross, 19 March 1942, ibid. 31. Viscount Halifax to Seymour, repeated to Eden, telegram 27, 5 June 1942, ibid. 32. Seymour's message to Halifax, in Sir R. I. Campbell, British embassy in Washington, to Eden, telegram 3595, 6 July 1942, ibid. 33. Seymour to Chiang Kai-shek, 25 November 1942, ibid. 34. Seymour to Eden, telegram 1565, secret, 17 November 1942, 371/31627, ibid. 35. Seymour to Peterson, private and personal, 24 November 1942, ibid. 36. Young's minute, 23 November, on Seymour to Eden, telegram 1565: "It is exceedingly uncivil of the Americans not to have told us anything about the visit", ibid. 37. M. Soames (ed.), Winston and Clementine: The personal letters of the Churchills (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998), p.487. 38. D. Dilks (ed.), The diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan 1938–1945(London: Cassell, 1971), p.586. Also see K. Alldritt, The greatest of friends: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill 1941–1945 (London: Robert Hall, 1995), pp.161–6. 39. W. F. Kimball, The juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as wartime statesman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), p.260, note 41. 40. Chan, "The abrogation of British extraterritoriality in China 1942–43: A study of Anglo-American-Chinese Relations," op cit. Also see "American attitude" in the section "Extraterritorial Rights," in FRUS, 1942, China, pp.269–417. 41. Peterson's minute, 17 November 1942, on Sir John Brenan's lengthy and detailed minute on Anglo-Chinese relations, 3 November 1942, FO 371/31627. 42. Cadogan's minute, 17 November, on Brenan's minute, ibid. 43. For Madame Chiang's role in Sino-American relations during the 1930s and 1940s, see T. C. Jespersen, "Bi ci liaojie: Yi jiu san ling yu yi jiu si ling niandai Jiang furen dui Zhong Mei guanxi de yingxiang" (Mutual understanding: Madame Chiang Kai-shek's influence on Sino-American relations during the 1930s and 1940s), in Jiang furen Song Meiling nushi yu jindai Zhongguo guoji xueshu taolunhui (ed.), Jiang furen Song Meiling nushi yu jindai Zhongguo guoji xueshu taolunji (Collection of papers presented at an international conference on Madame Chiang Kai-shek and modern China) (Taipei: Caituanfaren zhongzheng wenjiao jijinhui, 2000), pp.314–44. 44. Clarkes's minute, 19 November 1942, on Seymour to Eden, telegram 1565, secret, 17 November 1942, FO 371/31627. 45. Peterson's minute, 19 or 20 November 1942, and Cadogan's minute, 20 November 1942, on Seymour to Eden, telegram 1565, ibid. 46. Eden to Churchill, 21 November 1942, on Seymour to Eden, telegram, 565, ibid. 47. Eden's minute addressed to Churchill, 21 November 1942, Churchill's minute addressed to Eden, on Seymour to Eden, telegram 1565, ibid. 48. Eden to Seymour, telegram 1512, important, secret, and personal, 23 November 1942, ibid. 49. Seymour to Eden, telegram 1571, secret, 19 November 1942, ibid. 50. Young's minute, 23 November 1942, on Seymour to Eden, telegram 1571, ibid. 51. Young's minute, 23 November 1942, ibid. For details of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to Britain, including her stay at Buckingham Palace, see E. Roosevelt, This I remember (New York: Harper & Row, 1949), pp.260–77; and J. P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin: The story of their relationship, based on Eleanor Roosevelt's private papers (London: André Deutsch Limited, 1972), pp.658–61. 52. Clarke's minute, 24 November 1942, FO 371/31627. 53. Peterson's minute, 25 November 1942, ibid. 54. Cadogan's minute, 25 November 1942, ibid. 55. Cadogan to Hardinge, 1 December 1942, ibid. 56. Hardinge to Cadogan, 4 December 1942, ibid. 57. Sir D. Scott's minute, 5 December 1942, on Hardinge to Cadogan, 4 December 1942, ibid. 58. Clarke's minute, 7 December 1942, on Hardinge to Cadogan, 4 December 1942, ibid. 59. Peterson's minute, 8 December 1942, on Hardinge to Cadogan, 4 December 1942, ibid. 60. Cadogan's minute, 8 December 1942, on his conversation with Hardinge, ibid. 61. Cadogan to Hardinge, 10 December 1942, ibid. 62. Hardinge to Cadogan, 16 December 1942, ibid. 63. Peterson to Seymour, private, 14 December 1942, ibid. 64. Roosevelt, This I remember, pp. 282–6; and Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, pp.675–7. 65. Ch'i, "Chiang Kai-shek and Franklin D. Roosevelt," p.128. 66. "Indeed, a guilty conscience over China was to contribute significantly to the confused nature of American policy towards that country during the Pacific War, and to exacerbate friction with the British in that same part of the world," thus writes C. Thorne, Allies of a kind: The United States, Britain and the war against Japan, 1941–1945 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978), p.81. 67. G. MacJimsey, The presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas, 2000), p.225. 68. Seymour to Eden, telegram 1573, secret, 20 November 1942, and Peterson's minute, 27 November 1942, on it, in FO371/31620. Also see note 18. 69. The desperate effort to secure foreign, especially British, recognition by the Qing government, the revolutionaries, the Kuomintang, and Yuan Shikai, commonly dubbed "the father of warlords," is dealt with in Chan Lau Kit-ching, Anglo-Chinese diplomacy 1906–1920 in the careers of Sir John Jordan and Yüan Shih-kài (Hong Kong University Press, 1978). 70. Magruder to War Department, 893.248/261: Telegram, 10 February 1942, in FRUS, 1942, China, pp.13–6. 71. C. Thorne, Allies of a kindop. cit. Thorne refers to Churchill's letter to Eden, 5 November 1942, in PREM 4, 27/1. 72. D. Reynolds, Rich relations: The American occupation of Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Random House, 1995), p.15. 73. Whitfield, Hong Kong, empire and the Anglo-American alliance at war, 1941–45, p.215. 74. T. Parrish, Roosevelt and Marshall: Partners in politics and war (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989), pp.238–9, 371.
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