The Korean War Period

Abstract

The outbreak of the Korean war in the summer of 1950 brought Sino-British relations into a period of freeze and precipitated the withering away of British commercial presence in China. Not only did the sudden halt in bilateral trade undermine the raison d’être of commercial ties for China, the war also decidedly tipped the precarious balance in China’s government policy on Western capital investments within her territory, which had hitherto been judiciously maintained, towards a position in favour of their forfeiture.

The British have always been realistic, but if they do a thing of which they have reason to be ashamed, they like to wrap it up in a legal covering.

Sir Alexander Grantham (Governor of Hong Kong)

When at times we have feared that the Bureau had been driving us too hard, we have taken comfort in the saying that ‘Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth’. We cannot of course hope that the Bureau loves us: but we do hope that it realises our desire to co-operate with the Powers that be in the interests of the People.

J. Gadsby (Shanghai Gas Co.)