* * * Sir Austen Chamberlain had a very easy
task in answering such a speech. As he pointed out, Mr. MacDonald in recent speeches had recognized that no Government could do otherwise • than protect their own people in China. If the right to send • troops is conceded, the only question that remains is whether the strength of the force sent is excessive. In this matter the Government must • necessarily be guided by their expert advisers. Surely, all history teaches that one of the worst mistakes a Government can make is to declare a policy and then to try to carry it out with inadequate means. A thing must either be or not be. The strength of the force required at Shanghai is to be estimated, of course, not by the number of foreigners resident in Shanghai, though this number is always being irrelevantly introduced, but by the geographical difficulties of defence, and above all by the great size and the temper of the Chinese population in the Shanghai district. It is evident that a very large and dangerous mob could be set loose by the Bolshevist organizers of riot.
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