A Spectator's Notebook
SOME tinewithin the next twelve months or so the Government will be called on to make an appointment of immense importance—though no one, so far as I know, is giving a thought to it. Sir Miles Lampson became British Minister to China in 1926, and he will consequently have completed seven years there before 1988 is out. He is therefore already fully entitled to promotion. The choice of his successor may have far-reaching consequences, for a British Minister. (or, as it should be, Ambassador) who could gain the confidence at the same time of the Government of China and of the important British trading communities at Shanghai and elsewhere, would have it in his power to give invaluable help to China herself at a critical moment, to reconcile the sympathies and the material interests of this country and another nation numbering 400 million consumers, and to make himself a factor of stability in a region where the world's peace is most in danger. • I intend no word of criticism of Sir Miles Lampson. He is one of the ablest and most broad-minded men in the -diplomatic service. But it may very well be questioned whether Nanking—Nanking, not Peking, where our Legation still anomalously remains—is a post for u diplomatist de carrie:re at all at this juncture. It is a place for the best man to be found anywhere and in any walk of life—preferably for the type of non-professional diplomatist we have more than once sent to Washington. The position is just as big as its occupant might choose to make it—not a bit too small for a man of Cabinet status to accept.
Previous page
