‘Rather a Sham’: The 1931–1933 British Naval Mission to China and the Failure of Anglo-Chinese Naval Diplomacy during the ‘Nanjing Decade’

Abstract

This article explores the 1931–33 British Naval Mission to the Republic of China. An undeniable failure in its stated objective of fostering the reform and reorganization of the Republic of China Navy (ROCN), this Mission has been almost entirely overlooked by both historians of the interwar Royal Navy and scholars of Anglo-Chinese relations during the ‘Nanjing Decade’ (1927–1937). Utilizing British Admiralty and Foreign Office documents, as well as the official reports and private correspondence circulated by the Mission’s head – and sole member – Captain H.T. Baillie-Grohman, this article demonstrates that British policymakers had little faith in the Mission’s ability to achieve tangible short-term reform within the ROCN. Instead, British officials understood the Mission as an expedient way to foster long-term Anglo-Chinese goodwill which could be exploited once the Republic of China had attained a true measure of political and economic stability. However, even these vague long-term diplomatic objectives were doomed to failure in the face of the Nanjing Government’s severe economic limitations and lack of interest in naval development during the early 1930s.