27 - Three British Consuls in Manchuria, 1931–32: Esler Dening, Robert Scott and George Moss

Summary

INTRODUCTION

MANCHURIA IN 1931 was alive with rumours of Soviet and Japanese ambitions which might result in a Soviet-Japanese war. But even more serious there were rumours of a Japanese takeover of Manchuria in order to safeguard their rights, interests and investments which had been put at risk since Manchuria's warlord, Chang Hsueh-liang, had thrown in his lot – and his army – with the nationalist government in Nanking in 1928.

Since Manchuria was vast and remote. British diplomats in the area found it hard to make a judgment on events without the advice of China consuls scattered north of the Great Wall. These were British officials of the Far Eastern consular service who had been originally recruited as student interpreters and had pursued a career as consuls at the treaty ports, subordinate to the diplomatic service. For political reasons the languages required from them in Manchuria in 1931 were Chinese, Russian and Japanese. The majority of these consul/ linguists were drawn from the ‘China service’ whose reports were sent to the legation at Peking. But after Japan built up her interests in ‘Manchuria’ Whitehall found it necessary to have some consulates, notably Dairen (Dalian), served by Japanese specialists. They directed their reports to the Tokyo embassy. In either case the more important local reports could be transmitted to the Foreign Office in London. One complication was the fact that the Peking and Tokyo envoys of the day often disagreed with one another. There were, of course, other ways of finding out what was going on through military attachés and customs officials of British nationalities. But it was the Far Eastern consular service which was resident in the area and was most reliable in its reportage.

Sir Miles Lampson, in his concluding despatch on leaving China after serving for six years as minister, wrote in appreciation of the China consuls:

As regards His Majesty's Consular Officers in China, I can pay them no higher compliment than to say that they have in circumstances of unprecedented stress worthily upheld the fine tradition of the Service to which they have the honour to belong and of which I am proud to have had the direction for so many years…Their unfailing response to the constant calls upon their energy and resource have been a marked feature of these trying and difficult years in China.