Affairs of China

First published in 1938, this book aims to be a true and objective account of Chinas recent history and its present circumstances at the time, drawing on the authors thirty years of experience as a member of the British consular service in China. The recurrent themes of the period are examined: the efforts of the Chinese leadership to build a new China out of the ruins of the old, their efforts to claim a place of equality among the nations of the world, and the development of the conflict between a resurgent China and the ambitions of Japan. Some of the issues studied were in the process of change and others definitely closed by war nearly all were affected to some degree.