British Economic Interests in the Far East

Text extracted from opening pages of book: BRITISH ECONOMIC INTERESTS IN THE FAR EAST by E. M. GULL Prepared as a report in the International Research Series of the Institute of Pacific Relations Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD J 943 OXFORD 4JNIVBR91TY PRESS AMEN HOUSE, E. C; 4 London Edinburgh Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Capetown Bombay Calcutta Madras HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE IN writing a Preface to this study of British Economic Interests in the Far East, my object is neither to enlarge upon nor to supplement the author's Foreword, but to emphasize the importance which Far Eastern questions are likely to retain after the war. It is certain that the Far East will not' return to normal'; and it is equally certain that the positions which China and Japan have hitherto occupied in relation to one another and to ourselves will be radically changed. China, morally speaking, will have acquired a new international prestige, while Japan will be shorn of all her recent conquests. Chinese reconstruction and Japanese reformation will give the whole Far Eastern problem a new setting. New claims on the statesmanship and co-operative capacity of the Western Powers will be made. And, in this new atmosphere the promotion of such material and economic interests as Britain and the United States may retain after the war will require an imagina tive appreciation of the new circumstances. To that appreciation Mr. Gull's study of British economic interests contributes an essential service. Farther south, some of the factors hithertoregarded as normal will also undergo change. No doubt, we shall return to Malaya and the Dutch to their islands. But the last thing which we, or they, will either wish or be able to do will be to frame our, or their, post-war policy on the assumption that the status quo ante can be restored. On the contrary, both we and they will be anxious to distinguish it from the pre-war r6gime by reforms in tune with the insurgent national feeling in many lands and appro priate to the twin tasks of material betterment and political development. British policy will be more actively directed towards the evolution of an effective system of self-government. From this fact too will big changes flow. Many of the changes are likely to be economic, and it is with economic matters that this book deals in the main. These, how ever, have been selected and studied chiefly for the light which they throw upon political affairs. I abstain deliberately from ex pressing any opinion upon the appositeness, or the justice, with which this has been done. I do say, however, that it has been done in an interesting way, one which is the more instructive because at crucial points it leaves readers with plenty of scope for discussion and, if they disagree, for re-arranging the facts into such pattern as they themselves see. Moreover, while the author disclaims any attempt at presenting us with the study of an epoch, he does show clearly how the history of the last two Centuries or so falls within a framework of dominant ideas, some of which are vi PREFACE likely to be abandoned while others will have a new relevancy, and may be given a modernized application, to the problems of our time. At the Mont Tremblant Conference ofthe Institute of Pacific Relations in December 1942, Lord Hailey advocated the creation of a Council for the Pacific Zone, consisting of the representatives of the sovereign Powers concerned. To it he assigned a double function: ' It would, in the first place, be the local agency of what ever organization may be established by the United Nations for safeguarding the peace of Asia in common with other parts of the world. ... Its second function would be to secure, by joint consultation and by co-operative action, a common policy, so far as may be, in the economic deve