Abstract
The resurgence in 1933 of the Japanese threat to British interests in Asia could not have come at a worse time, for it coincided with the emergence of a revisionist and rapidly rearming Germany in Europe. This, and the split with Fascist Italy over the Ethiopian crisis in 1935, meant that Britain was faced with a ‘strategic nightmare’, in which there was the possibility that it might find itself at war simultaneously with three Great Powers. In this situation the need for good intelligence on East Asia became more important than ever. This period, therefore, saw a major reform and expansion of Britain’s intelligence-gathering operations as the priority shifted from acquiring information on the Comintern to measuring Japan’s potential for war.
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Notes
A. Trotter, Britain and East Asia, 1933–1937 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), I.H. Nish, ‘Japan in Britain’s View of the International System’, in I.H. Nish (ed.), Anglo-Japanese Alienation, 1919–1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), and A. Best, ‘The Road to Anglo-Japanese Confrontation, 1931–41’, in I. Nish and Y. Kibata (eds), The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations: The Political and Diplomatic Dimension, Vol.2 1931–2000 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000).
See, for example, in Japanese, C. Hosoya, ‘1934-nen no Nichi-Ei fukashin kyotei mondai, [The Problem in 1934 of the Anglo-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact], Kokusai Seiji [International Politics], 58 (1977), 69–85, Y. Kibata, ‘Risu-Rosu shisetsudan to Ei-Chu kankei’ [The Leith-Ross Mission and Anglo-Chinese Relations] in Y. Nozawa (ed.), Chukogu no heisei kaikaku to kokusai kankei [The Chinese Currency Reform and International Relations], (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1981), and idem, ‘Igirisu teikoku no henyo to higashi Ajia’ [East Asia and the Changing Nature of the British Empire], in S. Akita and N. Kagotani (eds), 1930-nendai Ajia kokusai chitujo [The International Order of Asia in the 1930s] (Hiroshima: Keisui-sha, 2001), pp. 261–82. For English language essays, see C. Hosoya, ‘Britain and the US in Japan’s View of the International System, 1919–37’ in I.H. Nish (ed.), Anglo-Japanese Alienation, 1919–1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), and Y. Kibata,
‘Anglo-Japanese Relations from the Manchurian Incident to Pearl Harbor: Missed Opportunities?’, in I.H. Nish and Y. Kibata (eds), The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations: The Political and Diplomatic Dimension, Vol.2: 1931–2000 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000). A useful English-language review of the Japanese arguments can be found in S. Akita, ‘British Informal Empire in East Asia, 1880–1939: A Japanese Perspective’, in R.E. Dumett (ed.), Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire (Longman, London, 1999).
See I. Hamill, The Strategic Illusion. The Singapore Strategy and the Defence of Australia and New Zealand (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1981), pp. 303–4.
ADM116/3693 Little to Admiralty 9 December 1937 tel.2222/8, and FO371/22044 F10055/2/10 Lindsay (Washington) to Halifax 21 September 1938 tel.350.
FO371/21028 F10616/26/23 Lindsay to Eden 30 November 1937 tels.437 and 438, and ‘C’ to Norton (FO) 6 December 1937 C/1803.
FO371/22944 C1500/421/62 Halifax to Mallet 4 February 1939 tel., and C1612/421/62 Ronald to Mallet (Washington) 16 February 1939.
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© 2002 Antony Best
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Best, A. (2002). ‘The Situation in the Far East Has Changed Completely’, 1933–37. In: British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914–1941. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287280_7
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