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The Mission of Sir Frederick Leith-Ross to the Far East, 1935–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

V. H. Rothwell
V. H. Rothwell
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

From August 1935 to July 1936 Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, the Chief Economic Adviser to the British Government, was away from Britain on an official mission to the Far East. While accepting that, as Hankey, the secretary to the cabinet, put it, after Leith-Ross had been away for several months, he was a ‘distinguished Civil Servant’ whose ‘services could, with difficulty, be spared from European problems’, the aim of this paper is not to describe in detail what Leith-Ross did during his lengthy Far Eastern sojourn: on that he himself wrote an account which was published just before his death. The purpose is rather, by studying the origins of the mission and the reactions to it in British Government circles concerned with Far Eastern policy, to cast light on that policy during Britain's last few years as a great power in the Far East.3 Within die Foreign Office itself, Far Eastern policy was to a large degree the preserve of die professional staff concerned with it. The most senior of these in 1935 were C. W. Orde, head of the Far Eastern department, Sir John Pratt and Sir Victor Wellesley.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 147 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 minures, Cabinet, 29 Jan. 1936, CAB 23/83.Google Scholar

2 See the chapter on “China” in Money Talks: the Autobiography of Sir Frederick Leith-Ross (London, 1968)Google Scholar. Leith-Ross died in the same year as his memoirs were published. He wrote fully, though not always accurately, on his dealings with the Chinese but less so on those with the Japanese, especially during his second visit to Tokyo. He was silent on his criticisms of British policies towards and representation in the Far East. Apart from this, the fullest account of the Leith-Ross mission in a book is Irving Friedman, S., British Relations with China 1931–1939 (New York, 1940), pp. 64–9.Google Scholar

3 On the almost immediately subsequent period see Clifford, Nicholas R., Retreat from China: British Policy in the Far East 1937–1941 (London, 1967) where it is suggested that it was not until the time of the Battle of Britain that the United States replaced the United Kingdom as the chief western power in the Far East (p. 147).Google Scholar

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35 Everest, , op. cit., p. 110.Google Scholar Morgenthau found grounds for objection when the State Department proposed to send a representative to meet Leith-Ross in Canada. The State Department by this time actually wanted to send a financial mission to China to work with rhe British but Morgenthau persuaded Roosevelt against such a course. Borg, , op. cit., pp. 130–2.Google Scholar

36 Leith-Ross, , op. cit., p. 198.Google Scholar

37 Leith-Ross, , op. cit., pp. 203–6 where the currency reform is misdated to October. In Dec. Leith-Ross noted with pride ‘that the silver bubble has been pricked and the economic situation has ceased to be afflicted by that problem’. Leith-Ross to Horace Hamilton, 13 Dec. 1935, T 188/118.Google Scholar

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41 Leith-Ross to Fisher, 4 Oct. 1935, T 188/118.

42 Leith-Ross to Fisher, 29 Dec. 1935, T 188/118, and 2 Jan. 1936, T 188/122.

43 Minute by Orde, , 28 Oct. 1935Google Scholar in ibid., no. 6739.

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46 Cf. Hoare, to Vansittart, , 31 Oct 1935Google Scholar in ibid., no. 6832.

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49 In fact the United States Government adopted a steadily more friendly attitude to Chinese efforts to reform rheir finances from the time of the currency reform onwards. Between November 1935 and the end of 1938 they bought Chinese silver in steadily larger quantities. The main quid pro quo which rhey successfully demanded was that China should not stabilise her currency on sterling alone. Everest, , op. cit., pp. 111–23Google Scholar; Borg, , op. cit., pp. 133–7.Google Scholar

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58 Minute by Pratt, , 31 Mar. 1936, F.O. 371/20216, no. 1702.Google Scholar

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62 Leith-Ross to Foreign Office, 12 Feb. 1936, F.O. 371/20215, no. 829; and 9 Mar. 1936, F.O. 371/20216, no. 1355. Leith-Ross made a number of private pleas to Fisher to be allowed to return home. Cf. letters of 29 Dec. 1935, T 188/118, and 3 Mar. 1936, T 188/122.

63 Minute by Orde, , 30 Apr. 1936, F.O. 371/20216, no. 2359.Google Scholar

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66 Leith-Ross to Foreign Office, 1 May 1936, with Foreign Office minutes and Vansitrart-Fisher correspondence, F.O. 371/20216, nos. 2449, 2672. Orde in a minute of 6 May noted that Waley was ‘unpleasantly obstructive’ in a telephone conversation about issuing a warning to Leirh-Ross. For Leith-Ross's, version of his actions see his memoirs, pp. 216–17.Google Scholar

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95 On the history and existing position of the Maritime Customs see memoranda by Pratt, , 7 and 28 Aug. 1936. F.O. 371/20253, nos. 4802 and 5247.Google Scholar

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99 Maze to Leith-Ross, 20 June 1936, Maze papers XII.

100 Memorandum by Maze on conversations between Leith-Ross, Cadogan and Ariyoshi, 20 Nov. 1935, Cadogan to Maze, 28 Nov. 1935 and 29 Feb. 1936, Maze to Macoun, J. H., 14 Feb. 1936, Maze to Cadogan, 15 Mar. 1936, Maze papers XI; minutes of meeting as cited in note 85 above.Google Scholar

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105 Minutes, circa 12 June 1936, F.O. 371/20217, no. 3176.

106 Minute, 26 July 1936, F.O. 371/20243, no. 4154.

107 Pratt's minute as in note 83.

108 These notes of Dec. 1936 in F.O. 371/20219, no. 7601.

109 Cf. Cubbon, J. H. to Maze, , 22 Feb. 1937, Maze papers XIII.Google Scholar

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127 Cubbon to Maze, quoting remarks of Sir Charles Addis, 19 Oct. 1939 in ibid. The writer added that he had been given confirmation of this by Leith-Ross himself.