A New British Initiative in China, 1935–41

Abstract

The refusal of the Roosevelt administration in 1933–4 to assume any responsibility for the world’s economic health, combined with its reluctance to cooperate with the British Treasury on silver policy in China, encouraged the British government to adopt a unilateral, forward policy in China, one which increasingly placed it in the role of China’s defender against the Japanese. Norman’s influence ensured that the Foreign Office and the Treasury cooperated with the HSBC. When the London Manager of the HSBC (O. J. Barnes) frankly confessed to being ‘out of his depth’ regarding matters of China loans and currency,¹ the Government turned once again to Addis, whose unrivalled expertise and experience with China loans and Chinese railways made him indispensable.

‘We are on a very good wicket here and we ought to take full advantage of it.’ — Knatchbull-Hugessen to Cadogan, 3 March 1937