FAR EASTERN POLICY
Sm,—Until I read the letter to the Spectator of Mr. Ashton Greene, of Princeton University, I had considered the principle of self-determination so firmly established in the minds of modern thinking men as to preclude the possibility of question by anyone who considered himself a progressive intellectual. But first the Utterances of Messrs. Costello and Dc Valera on the subject of Northern Ireland, and now Mr. Greene's observations on Hongkong have made me wonder whether my political views are somewhat out of date. Mr. Greene wants the British to give Hongkong to China. The principal argument which he advances for such a course of action is that the Chinese " will eventually try to take it by force anyway." Apart from advocating a policy of base cowardice, which contrasts strangely with the aggressive anti-Communism which we are at the moment witnessing in the United States, Mr. Greene recommends that we hand over the entire population of one country to the doubtful mercies of another without so much as consulting the party most affected by the transaction, viz., the inhabitants of Hongkong, who have con- sistently shown themselves uninterested in such a transfer. Mr. Greene further advises us to prepare Malaya for self-government, as if he were suggesting something unheard-of and quite revolutionary, instead of the goal at which we have been continually aiming for the past four years. Perhaps Mr. Greene could suggest some solution to the well-nigh in- soluble racial problems of Malaya ? . But he would probably only advise as to admit a hundred thousand Chinese immigrants at once. I for one find the strictures of Americans on our colonial policy rather tiresome, and
I wish that they would examine the nigger hi their own woodpile, instead of counting the chinks in our armour.—Yours faithfully,
Edgarley Manor, Glastonbury, Somerset. JULIAN MARSH.
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