‘Rather a Sham’: The 1931–1933 British Naval Mission to China and the Failure of Anglo-Chinese Naval Diplomacy during the ‘Nanjing Decade’

Abstract

This article explores the 1931–33 British Naval Mission to the Republic of China. An undeniable failure in its stated objective of fostering the reform and reorganization of the Republic of China Navy (ROCN), this Mission has been almost entirely overlooked by both historians of the interwar Royal Navy and scholars of Anglo-Chinese relations during the ‘Nanjing Decade’ (1927–1937). Utilizing British Admiralty and Foreign Office documents, as well as the official reports and private correspondence circulated by the Mission’s head – and sole member – Captain H.T. Baillie-Grohman, this article demonstrates that British policymakers had little faith in the Mission’s ability to achieve tangible short-term reform within the ROCN. Instead, British officials understood the Mission as an expedient way to foster long-term Anglo-Chinese goodwill which could be exploited once the Republic of China had attained a true measure of political and economic stability. However, even these vague long-term diplomatic objectives were doomed to failure in the face of the Nanjing Government’s severe economic limitations and lack of interest in naval development during the early 1930s.

Keywords:

• Royal navy
• China
• Baillie-Grohman
• naval diplomacy
• Nanjing decade

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the advice and expertise offered by Dr. Christopher Bell and Dr. Bruce A. Elleman on previous drafts of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Diary of First Week in China on Naval Mission,’ 7 April 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 3, 1.

2 ‘Contract for British Naval Assistance in China,’ 10 June 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 5; G.C. Muirhead-Gould, ‘Notes on the Naval Mission to China,’ 18 Nov. 1930 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 6, 10-11.

3 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Sea Power and its Importance to China,’ Dec. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 10; H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘British Naval Mission to Nanking,’ Undated [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 6, 1.

4 Bruce A. Elleman, The Making of the Modern Chinese Navy: Special Historical Characteristics (London: Anthem Press, 2019), 45.

5 ‘Contract for British Naval Assistance in China,’ 10 June 1929, ADM 116/2639, 4, 13.

6 Baillie-Grohman, ‘British Naval Mission to Nanking,’ 1.

7 Baillie-Grohman to Layton, 2 Feb. 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 3

8 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on British Naval Mission in Nanking – Thursday, 11th February 1932,’ [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 19.

9 Baillie-Grohman, ‘British Naval Mission to Nanking,’ Undated, GRO 6, 5.

10 Baillie-Grohman to Fitzherbert, 24 June 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 2; Baillie-Grohman to Layton, 25 March 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1–2.

11 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, “Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31^st August 1932” [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 17, 37.

12 Baillie-Grohman to Pegram, September 10, 1932 [Greenwich, Carid Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 6, 4, 7.

13 Baillie-Grohman, “British Naval Mission to Nanking,” GRO 6, 2.

14 See, for example, Gill Bennet, ‘British Policy in the Far East in 1933–1936: Treasury and Foreign Office,’ Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 3 (July 1993): 545–568; Antony Best, ‘Economic Appeasement or Economic Nationalism? A Political Perspective on the British Empire, Japan, and the Rise of Intra-Asian Trade, 1933-37,’ The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 30, no. 2 (2002): 77–101; Antony Best, British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in East Asia, 1914–41 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); Antony Best, ‘The Leith-Ross Mission and British Policy towards East Asia, 1934–37,’ International History Review 35, no. 4 (August 2013): 681–701; Stephen Endicott, Diplomacy and Enterprise: British China Policy 1933–1937 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1975); Peter Neville, ‘Lord Vansittart, Sir Walford Selby and Debate about Treasury Interference in the Conduct of British Foreign Policy in the 1930s,’ Journal of Contemporary History 36, no. 4 (2001): 623–633; Yoichi Kibata, ‘British Imperialism in Asia and Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1930s-1950s,’ in Shigeru Akita and Nicholas J. White (eds), The International Order of Asia in the 1930s and 1950s (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2010), 49–60; and Yoichi Kibata, ‘Anglo-Japanese Relations from the Manchurian Incident to Pearl Harbor: Missed Opportunities,’ in Ian Nish and Yoichi Kibata (eds), The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1600–2000, Volume II: The Political-Diplomatic Dimension, 1931–2000 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), 1–25.

15 See Robert A. Bickers, Britain in China: Community, Culture, and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (New York: Manchester University Press, 1999); Robert A. Bickers, Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination (London: Penguin, 2018); Robert A. Bickers, Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai (London: Penguin, 2004); Robert A. Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders: The Formation and Identity of the British Settler Community in Shanghai, 1843–1937,’ Past and Present, no. 159 (May 1998): 161–211; and R.A. Bickers, ‘Death of a Young Shanghailander: The Thorburn Case and the Defence of the British Treaty Ports in China 1931,’ Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 2 (May 1996): 271–300.

16 See, for example, Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018); Bernard D. Cole, The Great Wall at Sea: China’s Navy in the Twenty-first Century (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001); Robert Haddick, Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2014); and Michael McDevitt, China as a Twenty-first-century Naval Power: Theory, Practice and Implications (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2020).

17 See Richard N.J. Wright, The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945 (London: Chatham Publishing, 2000); Elleman, The Making of the Modern Chinese Navy; and Bruce A. Elleman, A History of the Modern Chinese Navy, 1840–2020 (London: Routledge, 2021).

18 Elleman, A History of the Modern Chinese Navy, 97–98.

19 Ibid., 108–109, 113.

20 Junyu Shao, ‘“Chinese Learning for Fundamental Structure, Western Learning for Practical Use?”: The Development of Late Nineteenth Century,’ PhD. diss. (King’s College, London, 2015), 22–23.

21 Shao, ‘Chinese Learning for Fundamental Structure,’ 134–135.

22 Meiying Li, ‘More than Survival: Domestic Politics and the Evolution of the Chinese Navy from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Early Republic of China, 1895-1930,’ PhD. diss. (King’s College, London, 2017), 18–19.

23 Li, ‘More than Survival,’ 16–17.

24 Ibid., 18.

25 See Matthew Heaslip, Gunboats, Empire and the China Station: The Royal Navy in 1920s East Asia (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021); and Jon Wise, The Role of the Royal Navy in South America, 1920–1970 (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014).

26 See ‘Termination of British Naval Mission in Chile/Future Policy for Naval Missions in South America,’ 10 April 1933 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251.

27 Endicott, Diplomacy and Enterprise, 10.

28 Baillie-Grohman, ‘British Naval Mission to Nanking,’ Undated, GRO 6, 1; Donald A. Jordan, The Northern Expedition: China’s National Revolution of 1926–1928 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976), 7–8.

29 Tweedie to Lampson, 14 December 1928 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1.

30 Tweedie to Lampson, 14 December 1928, ADM 116/2639, 2; Tweedie to Waistell, 4 Aug. 1928 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1.

31 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 16 April 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1.

32 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 19 May 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1.

33 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 19 May 1929, ADM 116/2639, 1.

34 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 17, 9, 35, 46.

35 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 19 May 1929, ADM 116/2639, 1.

36 Ibid.

37 Tweedie to the Admiralty, 3 June 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1; ‘Contract for British Naval Assistance in China,’ 1, 5.

38 Tweedie to the Admiralty, 3 June 1929, ADM 116/2639, 1; ‘Contract for British Naval Assistance in China,’ 21.

39 See G.A.H. Gordon, British Seapower and Procurement Between the Wars: A Reappraisal of Rearmament (London: MacMillan Press, 1988); and John Ferris, ‘“It is Our Business in the Navy to Command the Seas”: The Last Decade of British Maritime Supremacy, 1919–1929,’ in Greg Kennedy and Keith Neilson (eds), Far-Flung Lines: Essays on Imperial Defence in Honour of Donald Mackenzie Schurman (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 124–170.

40 Christopher M. Bell, The Royal Navy, Seapower, and Strategy Between the War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 151; Jon Wise, The Role of the Royal Navy in South America, 1920-1970 (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 26–27.

41 Bell, The Royal Navy, Seapower, and Strategy, 152; Wise, The Role of the Royal Navy in South America, 9.

42 Donald Stoker, ‘The History and Evolution of Foreign Military Advising and Assistance, 1815–2007,’ in Donald Stoker (ed), Military Advising and Assistance from Mercenaries to Privatization, 1815–2007 (London: Routledge, 2010), 2.

43 Stoker, ‘The History and Evolution of Foreign Military Advising and Assistance,’ 4.

44 Tweedie to the Admiralty, 3 June 1929, ADM 116/2639, 1.

45 Joseph A. Maiolo, ‘Anglo-Soviet Naval Armament Diplomacy Before the Second World War,’ English History Review 123, no. 501 (April 2008), 378.

46 Maiolo, ‘Anglo-Soviet Naval Armament Diplomacy,’ 365.

47 Henderson to Lampson, 3 Dec. 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4080, 1.

48 ‘New Navy for China,’ North China Daily Herald, 18 Aug. 1929, ADM 116/2639.

49 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 5 Nov. 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4080, 1.

50 Aveling to Lampson, 5 Nov. 1929, FO 228/4080, 1.

51 Henderson to Lampson, 3 Dec. 1929, FO 228/4080, 1.

52 Ibid.

53 Lampson to Henderson, 7 Dec. 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4080, 1.

54 Lampson to Henderson, 7 Dec. 1929, FO 228/4080, 3.

55 H[is] B[ritannic] M[ajesty’s] Minister, Nanjing to Lampson, 10 Jan. 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4079, 1.

56 HBM Minister, Nanjing to Lampson, 10 Jan. 1930, 1.

57 Erich Teichman, ‘Supply of Cruiser to Chinese Govts,’ 7 May 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4079, 1.

58 Teichman, ‘Supply of Cruiser to Chinese,’ 1.

59 Lampson to Henderson, 13 Sept. 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], FO 228/4079, 1–2.

60 Lampson to Henderson, 13 Sep. 1930, FO 228/4079, 1.

61 Teichman, ‘Supply of Cruisers to Chinese,’ 1.

62 Tweedie to the Admiralty, 2 Oct. 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1; Cecil Usborne, ‘British Naval Mission to China,’ 6 Oct. 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

63 Tweedie to the Admiralty, 18 Aug. 1929 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1; Chen to Shi Zhaoji, 4 Sept. 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

64 Admiralty to Waistell, 8 April 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1; Admiralty to Waistell, 25 June 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/2639, 1.

65 Muirhead-Gould, ‘Notes on the Naval Mission to China,’ GRO 6, 2.

66 Cecil Usborne, ‘British Naval Mission to China,’ 6 Oct. 1930 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

67 Peter Worthing, ‘A Tale of Two Fronts: China’s War of the Central Plains, 1930,’ War in History 25, no. 4 (2017), 52.

68 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 5 April 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 4.

69 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 5 April 1931,GRO 4.

70 Ibid.

71 Baillie-Grohman to Layton, 8 Jan. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 2.

72 Taylor to Evelyn Baillie-Grohman, 30 Dec. 1930 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 1.

73 Taylor to Evelyn Baillie-Grohman, 30 Dec. 1930, GRO 5, 1; Tyler to Usborne, 10 March 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 2, 2.

74 Taylor to Evelyn Baillie-Grohman, 30 Dec. 1930, 1; Taylor to H.T. Baillie-Grohman, 24 Feb. 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 1.

75 Taylor to Evelyn Baillie-Grohman, 30 Dec. 1930, GRO 5, 2.

76 Tyler to Baillie-Grohman, 23 Jan. 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 2, 4.

77 Tyler to Baillie-Grohman, 10 March 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 2, 1.

78 Baillie-Grohman to Pegram, 10 Sep. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 6, 7.

79 Taylor to Evelyn Baillie-Grohman, 30 Dec. 1930, GRO 5, 2.

80 Taylor to Baillie-Grohman, 24 Feb. 1931, GRO 5, 1; Taylor to ‘Charlie’, 5 Dec.1930 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 1.

81 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 22 July 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 5.

82 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Notes on the General Situation as Seen in Nanking,’ 19 Oct. 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 1.

83 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 August. 1932,’ GRO 17, 65.

84 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Memo No. 8, 8^th December 1931. Economy, Ammunition, and the Policy of Building more Ships,’ [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 15, 3.

85 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Interview No. 1,’ 6 April 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 2.

86 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 17.

87 Wright, The Chinese Steam Navy, 155; Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 54.

88 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 4 April 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 2; H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Interview No. 1,’ 6 April 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 2.

89 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 15 July 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 4.

90 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 15 July 1931, GRO 7, 4.

91 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Memo. No. 12. 25^th June 1932. Unsuitability of Proposed Naval Academy at Nimrod Sound.’ [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 16, 1.

92 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 15 July 1931, GRO 7, 5.

93 Ibid., 6.

94 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 22 July 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 2.

95 Baillie-Grohman to Usborne, 22 July 1931, GRO 7, 4; Usborne to Baillie-Grohman, 7 Sep. 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 2.

96 Usborne to Baillie-Grohman, 7 Sep. 1931, GRO 7, 3.

97 Kelly to Baillie-Grohman, 27 July 1931 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

98 Kelly to Baillie-Grohman, 27 July 1931, GRO 7, 1.

99 Lampson to Wellesley, 6 Aug. 1931 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

100 Lampson to Wellesley, 6 Aug. 1931, ADM 116/3251, 1

101 Ibid.

102 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Memo No. 8, 8^th December 1931,” GRO 15, 3.

103 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on British Naval Mission in Nanking – Thursday, 11^th February 1932,’ GRO 5, 1, 3.

104 Baillie-Grohman ‘Report on British Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 34-35.

105 Baillie-Grohman to Layton, 2 Feb. 1933, GRO 7, 2.

106 Ibid., 3.

107 Baillie-Grohman to Thompson, 12 April 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 3, 2.

108 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 18–19.

109 Ibid., 19.

110 Bruce Elleman, Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795-1989 (London: Routledge, 2001), 192.

111 Lampson to the Foreign Office, 19 May 1929, 1; Elleman, Modern Chinese Warfare, 180.

112 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 8 April 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

113 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 8 April 1933, GRO 7, 1.

114 Ibid.

115 Lloyd E. Eastman, Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, 1937–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984), 7–8.

116 Lloyd E. Eastman, ‘Nationalist China During the Nanjing Decade, 1927–1937,’ in John K. Fairbanks and Albert Feurwerker (eds), The Cambridge History of China, Volume 13: Republican China 1912–1949, Part 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 124.

117 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on British Naval Mission in Nanking – Thursday, 11th February 1932,’ GRO 5, 19.

118 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 73–74.

119 Donald S. Sutton, ‘German Advice and Residual Warlordism in the Nanking Decade: Influences on Nationalist Military Training and Strategy,’ The China Quarterly, no. 91 (Sep. 1982), 387.

120 Billie K. Walsh, ‘The German Military Mission in China, 1928–38,’ The Journal of Modern History 46, no. 3 (Sep. 1974), 502.

121 Sutton, ‘German Advice and Residual Warlordism,’ 388.

122 Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 35.

123 Baillie-Grohman to HBM Charge d’Affaires, Nanjing, December 3, 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1; Baillie-Grohman, ‘Report on the Naval Mission in Nanking, 31 Aug. 1932,’ GRO 17, 50.

124 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Memorandum on Aspects of the Failures of the Chinese Government to Comply with the Shipbuilding Clause (No. 54) of the Naval Contract: Signed on 20^th June 1929,’ 11 April 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 3, 1.

125 Baillie-Grohman to HBM Charge d’Affaires, Nanjing, 3 Dec. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

126 H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Sea Power and its Importance to China,’ Dec. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 11.

127 Baillie-Grohman to HBM Charge d’Affaires, Nanjing, 9 Dec. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

128 Baillie-Grohman to HBM Charge d’Affaires, Nanjing, 9 Dec. 1932, GRO 7, 1.

129 H.T Baillie-Grohman, ‘Sea Power and its Importance to China,’ Dec. 1932 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 5, 11; H.T. Baillie-Grohman, ‘Interview between Mr. T.V. Soong and Commodore Baillie-Grohman on Naval Policy, December 1^st, 1932,’ [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

130 Dickens to Baillie-Grohman, 15 Feb. 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 3, 2.

131 Lampson to Kelly, 24 Feb. 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

132 Lampson to Kelly, 24 Feb. 1933, GRO 7, 1

133 Gerald Charles Dickens, ‘British Naval Mission to China: Consideration of Admiralty Policy,’ 20 April 1933 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1–2

134 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 4 Jan. 1933 [Greenwich, Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich], GRO 7, 1.

135 Baillie-Grohman to Kelly, 4 Jan. 1933, GRO 7, 1.

136 Royle to the Foreign Office, 1 Oct. 1934 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

137 Dreyer to the Admiralty, 17 Oct. 1934 [Kew, United Kingdom National Archives, Public Records Office], ADM 116/3251, 1.

138 Baillie-Grohman to Layton, 2 Feb. 1933, GRO 7, 3.

Additional information

Funding

This article draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Liam Caswell

Liam Caswell is a PhD candidate at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. Working under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Bell, Liam’s research focuses on the role played by the Royal Navy in Britain’s diplomatic and informal imperial policies in China during the 1930s.