Everybody knows that in the past the West has driven
hard bargains with China and in the matter of the opium trade, for example, conducted a policy of which we have no reason to be proud. In recent years, however, Great Britain exerted every effort to end the opium trade in China and was actually within sight of success when her labours were all thwarted by the intensification of the civil war. The history of the past supplies a large part of the motive for the British Government's present conscientious policy. Perhaps Mr. Chen, the Cantonese Foreign Minister, is committed against his own wishes by the most unfortunate alliance into which the Kuomintang has entered with Moscow. At all events, he is beating the air when he denounces us for not doing what we are anxious to do. We have written further on this subject in our first leading article.
