'WHAT ABOUT 'THE OPIUM WAR?'
SIR,—Mr. Levin's admirable review of The Opium War through Chinese Eyes reminded me of an eye- opening experience of mine when I was a student at an American university.
It was in the early months of the Cyprus troubles that I was invited as the only Englishman in sight to defend British policy in Cyprus. I was reluctant to accept, but I did so when I discovered that the organ- iser of the meeting at the international students' club, and the champions of both Greek and Turkish interests in the debate, were to be Greek Cypriots. My brief was tricky, though not as tricky as suc- cessive statesmanlike interventions have made the same brief today. But I was doing moderately well until a Chinese American student suddenly shouted passionately, 'What about the Opium War?'
Like most Englishmen I knew nothing Of the war beyond its name; but it was no use protesting that it was long ago and far away from Cyprus. On this occasion the mere mention of the opium war was taken as a damning argument against British policy in Cyprus by American and French as well as African and Asian students.
Rightly or wrongly the moral I drew was not that an aura of hypocrisy hung uniquely over British foreign policy. After all, self-interested and bloody wars had been started, and slimy pretexts advanced for them, by the countries from which many of my
audience came. What I did conclude, and nothing has
yet changed my conclusion, was that we in Britain have not only underestimated the strength of anti- colonial feeling, but also its unity. The humiliation of one people is resented by all; and we, who have had dealings with most, are most widely resented. To have and to maintain colonial interests may or may not be wicked. But outside this country any reasons beyond self-interest for doing so arc almost universally thought hypocrisy.—Yours faithfully,
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