‘We are virtually at war with Russia’: Britain and the Cold War in East Asia, 1923–40

Abstract

Despite the fact that the Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, the Cold War is typically seen as a conflict that only emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. This paper questions that orthodox interpretation by studying the tense relations that existed in the inter-war period between Britain and the Soviet Union. In particular it looks at Anglo-Soviet rivalry in East Asia in the mid-1920s when the Comintern inspired the Kuomintang in China to challenge British commercial interests in that country and the consequences that this competition had for relations down to 1940 and beyond.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dianne Kirby, Keith Neilson, Arne Westad and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this paper and Alastair Kocho-Williams for sending me an advance copy of his paper on the Soviet Union and the General Strike.

Notes

 [1] See, for example, Iriye, Global Community, 60–95.

 [2] The leading figure in this field is probably Odd Arne Westad; see, in particular, Westad, ‘The New International History of the Cold War’.

 [3] Some works do go against this trend, for example, Mayer, Political Origins and Leffler, The Specter of Communism. For the Comintern in the inter-war period, see McKnight, Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War.

 [4] See, for example, Deighton, The Impossible Peace; Barker, The British between the Superpowers, 1945–50; and Kent, British Imperial Strategy. One dissenting voice is Saville, The Politics of Continuity, although even his book does not mention the Shanghai crisis of 1927.

 [5] Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order.

 [6] A key exception here is Zara Steiner's magisterial The Lights That Failed.

 [7] Andrew, Secret Service.

 [8] Harris, ‘Encircled by Enemies’, 513–23; Kocho-Williams, Russian and Soviet Diplomacy.

 [9] See, for example, Austen Chamberlain to Ida Chamberlain, 26 September 1919, in Self, The Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters, 118, and William Bridgeman to Caroline Bridgeman, 29 September 1919, in Williamson, The Modernization of Conservative Politics, 142.

[10] Andrew, Secret Service, 323.

[11] Webber, The Ideology of the British Right; Ruotsila, British and American Anticommunism; Rose, Conservatism and Foreign Policy.

[12] Hopkirk, The Great Game.

[13] The Pendjeh crisis is described in Hopkirk, The Great Game, 418–29.

[14] See Nish, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance; Neilson, Britain and the Last Tsar; Otte, The China Question.

[15] Pantsov, The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution , 47–52; Wilbur and How, Missionaries of Revolution, 57–8.

[16] Harris, ‘Encircled by Enemies’, 513–21.

[17] Best, British Intelligence, 54–5.

[18] The National Archives (TNA), Kew, TNA FO371/11621 F513/1/10 ‘Memorandum respecting Canton’ Ashton-Gwatkin (FE Dept), 3 February 1926.

[19] Neilson, ‘“Pursued by a Bear”’, 194–5.

[20] Best, British Intelligence, 59–61.

[21] Wilbur and How, Missionaries of Revolution, 368–70.

[22] TNA ADM1/8712/154 Admiralty to C-in-C China, 5 January 1927.

[23] Best, British Intelligence, 68.

[24] Bennett, ‘A Most Extraordinary and Mysterious Business’; Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 47–9.

[25] TNA CAB4/15 CID710-B ‘Foreign Policy in Relation to Russia and Japan’ Tyrrell (PUS FO), 26 July 1926.

[26] Quoted in Andrew, Secret Service, 328. For Soviet policy towards the General Strike, see Kocho-Williams, ‘The Soviet Union and the British General Strike’.

[27] For Bridgeman's views, see Bridgeman papers, Shropshire Archives, Shrewsbury, MS4629/1/1927/5 William Bridgeman to Maurice Bridgeman, 26 January 1927 (by permission of Shropshire Archives and the Trustees of the Bridgeman family archives). For one of Birkenhead's speeches, see The Times, 7 December 1926, 14.

[28] TNA FO371/11662 F5314/10/10 Widdows (WO) to FO, 6 December 1926.

[29] TNA FO371/11632 F4370/1/10 Wellesley minute, 21 October 1926.

[30] TNA CAB23/53 65(26) Cabinet meeting 15 December 1926 and FO371/11697 F4934/4934/10 Chamberlain to Worthington-Evans, 23 November 1926.

[31] See the government statements in Parliamentary Debates, 5th Series (Commons) vol. 184, c. 2255 (11 June 1925), vol. 186, c. 59 (6 July 1925), and vol. 187, c. 1838 (7 August 1925).

[32] Anonymous, ‘Current Comments’, 7.

[33] For an overview of House of Commons debates about China between 1925 and 1927 see Chow, ‘Parliament and the Problem of China’.

[34] Addis papers, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) archive, PPMS14/186 Addis to Mills, 15 October 1926.

[35] Austen Chamberlain papers, Special Collections, Birmingham University, AC38/3/8 Garvin to Chamberlain, 2 January 1927. I would like to thank Special Collections, Birmingham University and Professor John Ledingham for permission to cite this document.

[36] Baldwin papers, Cambridge University Library, vol. 115, Davidson to Baldwin, 10 January 1927. I should like to thank the Syndics of Cambridge University Library for permission to quote from the Baldwin papers.

[37] See Fung, The Diplomacy of Imperial Retreat, 120–6.

[38] Chamberlain papers, TNA, FO800/260 Joyston-Hicks to Chamberlain, 7 January 1927 and Hirtzel (IO) to Chamberlain, 17 January 1927.

[39] TNA WO32/5916 Milne (CIGS) to Worthington-Evans, 5 March 1927.

[40] Hints for Speakers (Conservative Central Office), 3 February 1927, no. 5.

[41] Parliamentary Debates, 5th Series (Commons) vol. 202, col. 379 (10 February 1927), vol. 203, cols. 611–14 (3 March 1927), and vol. 204, c. 1437 (31 March 1927).

[42] Illustrated Sunday Herald, 30 January 1927.

[43] Fung, Diplomacy of Imperial Retreat, 129–46.

[44] Andrew, Secret Service, 331–2.

[45] Bridgeman papers, Shropshire Archives, MS4629/1/1927/44 William Bridgeman to Maurice Bridgeman, 25 May 1927 (by permission of Shropshire Archives and the Trustees of the Bridgeman family archives).

[46] TNA FO371/12411 F9240/2/10 Ashton-Gwatkin (FE Dept) minute, 15 December 1927.

[47] Neilson, ‘“Pursued by a Bear”’, 204–6.

[48] Foster, ‘Secret Police Cooperation’, 331–50.

[49] For more detail on the Noulens case, see Wakeman, Policing Shanghai, 147–51.

[50] Field papers, Imperial War Museum, London, ‘That's the Way It Was’, Field memoirs, undated. I would like to thank the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum for permission to quote from the Field papers.

[51] Field papers, Imperial War Museum, London, ‘That's the Way It Was’, Field memoirs, undated. I would like to thank the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum for permission to quote from the Field papers

[52] Neilson, ‘“Pursued by a Bear”’, 201–7.

[53] Neilson, ‘“Pursued by a Bear”’, 205.

[54] TNA FO371/12439 F1366/87/10 Chamberlain to Lampson (Peking), 10 February 1927, tel-.

[55] For the IIC, see Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 58–9.

[56] For an analysis of the debates within the DRC, see Neilson, ‘The Defence Requirements Sub-Committee’.

[57] TNA FO371/18058 F4949/14/10 Govt of India to India Office, 9 August 1934, tel. 1718. See also Hopkirk, Setting the East Ablaze, 217–25.

[58] On the loan issue, see Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 154–69.

[59] Best, British Intelligence, 125–8, and Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 99–102.

[60] For Japanese policy towards the Soviet Union, see Sakai, ‘The Soviet Factor in Japanese Foreign Policy’, 27–40.

[61] See Haslam, The Soviet Union and the Threat from the East, passim; and Best, British Intelligence, 130.

[62] TNA FO371/18176 F823/316/23 Randall (FE Dept) memorandum, 9 February 1934.

[63] See, for example, Ambassador Yoshida's failed attempts to interest Britain in Soviet activities in China and in the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936 in TNA FO371 20233/42/10 Yoshida to Cadogan (FO), 13 October 1936, and FO371/20285 F7043/303/23 Eden–Yoshida talk, 16 November 1936.

[64] Gwynne papers, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Ms Gwynne 29, diary entry 16 July 1932. I would like to thank Messrs Hoare Trustees for permission to cite Lord Hailsham's words as recorded in the Gwynne diary.

[65] Diary entry 13 February 1936, in Barnes and Nicholson, The Empire at Bay, 407. A similar argument can be found in Muggeridge, ‘Germany, Russia, and Japan’.

[66] Saville, The Politics of Continuity, 41.

[67] Johnston, ‘Japan, Manchuria and Russia’.

[68] TNA CAB24/234 CP362(32) ‘A Military Appreciation of the Present World Situation’, War Office memorandum, October 1932.

[69] Liddell Hart papers, LHCMA, LH1/404 pt. 2, Ironside to Liddell Hart, 28 October 1934. I would like to thank the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives for permission to quote from the Liddell Hart papers.

[70] Liddell Hart papers, LHCMA, LH11/1933, diary entry for 15 November 1933.

[71] Best, British Intelligence, 137.

[72] Documents on British Foreign Policy , doc. 233, F11989/84/10 Clark Kerr (Chungking) to Halifax, 7 November 1938, 216–18, and TNA FO371/23462 F11813/87/10 Clark Kerr to Halifax, 12 November 1939, tel. 98 (tour).

[73] See, for example, Millman, ‘Toward War with Russia’, 259–83.

[74] Parliamentary Debates, 5th Series (Commons) vol. 292, 13 July 1934, c. 690.

[75] Attlee papers, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Mss Attlee 1, Attlee speech January 1940, ff. 45–6. I would like to thank Lord Attlee and the Master and Fellows of University College, Oxford for permission to cite from the Attlee papers.

[76] Hauner, ‘The Soviet Threat to Afghanistan and India’.

[77] TNA FO371/23699 N6686/2166/38 ‘Conditions in Soviet Central Asia and Sinkiang, 1939’ Deputy Director of Intelligence (Peshawar), 13 October 1939.

[78] Saville, The Politics of Continuity, 16–17 and 29. For Sargent, see also Neilson, ‘Orme Sargent’.

[79] British Documents on Foreign Affairs , doc. 117, Roberts (Moscow) to Bevin, 30 August 1946, no. 659, 215–24.

[80] See, for example, TNA FO371/15475 F972/88/10 Roberts (FE Dept) minute, 18 February 1931 and FO371/15746 F4426/88/10 Roberts minute, 17 August 1931.