There is, of course, a great deal of truth in
such argu- ments, but they must not be made an excuse for any indifference or complacency on the part of the British .Government. In our view the necessary thing is to get back to the mood and temper of the Washington Confer- ;Ace _where .Chinese_ affairs were discussed. _ Let us act as though there had been no unfortunate incidents • in between, and as though the work of Was hington was now being taken up exactly where it left off. If we allow our- selves to be unnerved by objections and to think that mere questions of punctilio are decisive we shall make no progress at all. An opportunity is now offered and it must be seized. We ought to be able to dispose at the Conference even of such an awkward incident as the insolent order of the Canton Government prohibiting the movement of British ships to and from Chinese ports. This order is simply a violation of the Treaties. The Belshevists have more influence in Canton than anywhere else, yet we believe that the Cantonese are only tem- porarily consorting with Bolshevism. Essentially there is no common ground between Chinese and Bolshevist habits of thotight. We have written in a leading article of the immense injury that is being done to our trade by the Chinese boycott, and have tried to analyse the situation and to show that nothing substantial stands in the way Of removing all the present misunderstandings with the Chinese.
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