ANTHONY EDEN

felt that the combination of the mailed fist and the olive
branch was calculated to provoke rather than allay the danger
of a general war.

The National Council, representing the trade union move-
ments as well as the Parliamentary Party, accordingly pub-
lished a manifesto condemning the Government's action in
no uncertain manner, and actually went as far as telegraphing
the terms of its resolution to Mr. Chen, the Chinese
Nationalist leader, and sent him a letter saying that it would
do all in its power to procure a settlement that would give
China national independence in the fullest sense of the
words. The actual dispatch of troops divided the party:
Mr. Thomas was for it, Mr. Wheatley against, while Mr.
MacDonald wobbled. Labour opposition culminated, how-
ever, in. a great mass meeting in the Albert Hall at the begin-
ning of February, at which allegations were made about a
war party within the Cabinet. This particular campaign is a
good example of the persistent strength of Labour's inter-
national idealism and of the equally persistent weakness of
their Parliamentary tactics. Having beep, defeated in one
debate they exploited the same arguments in Committee of
Supply a month later, after a settlement, which was generally
approved, had been reached between Mr. Chen and the
British representative in China. The initiative was thus
handed over on the second occasion to the Government
spokesman.

But Labour was further outflanked, for the Conservatives
used the Chinese disturbances to press their case against
Soviet Russia. Russia had played her part in fomenting anti-
British agitation in the Far East, and the occasion was now
exploited by a section of the Conservative Party to repeat
their claim that Anglo-Soviet relations should be broken off.
Notes were published by the two Governments which did
not substantially help the situation. It was generally felt
that matters could not rest as they were. Labour wanted to
improve Anglo-Soviet trade: Tory diehards to bring it to