Many years ago, the eminent historian Gordon A. Craig wrote: ‘One of the recurring themes in those books on the
diplomatic pre-history of the Second World War which have come to us from the former enemy countries is the plight
of the professional diplomat, whose training and knowledge convinced him that the policy of his government was
leading straight to disaster but whose advice was seldom solicited and never followed.’ Craig went on to show that
this pattern of ‘the neglect and abuse of the resources of expert diplomacy’ occurred in the democratic countries of
the time. Professional Chinese diplomats (and intellectuals) fared little better than their counterparts, democratic or
totalitarian, in the 1930s when their leader, Chiang Kai-shek, pursued a policy of appeasement toward Japan. Chiang's
appeasement policy, or what some have referred to as a policy of accommodation or gradualism, has received much
treatment from historians.