Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis, 1931-1938

457 Pages·1982·12.245 MB·English

by  John P. Fox

Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis
1931-1938

GERMANY AND THE
FAR EASTERN CRISIS
1931-1938
A Study in Diplomacy and Ideology
JOHN P. FOX
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND
POLITICAL SCIENCE
1982
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©John P. Fox 1982
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Fox, John P.
Germany and the Far Eastern crisis 1931—1938.
1. Germany — Foreign relations — Far East
2. Far East — Foreign relations — Germany
I. Title
327.43*05 DD241.F/
ISBN 0-19-822573-3
Typeset by Express Litho Service (Oxford)
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Press, Oxford
by Eric Buckley
Printer to the University
To my children
JANE and PAUL
‘Hitherto we have pursued a German—Japanese and a
German—Chinese policy but not a German Far Eastern
policy. It is difficult to apply a common denominator
to our Far Eastern policy. It moves like a pendulum,
sometimes to the Chinese and sometimes to the
Japanese side, and a strong inclination to the one side
causes bad feeling on the other.*
Oskar Trautmann, January 1937
Acknowledgements
Since this book deals with Far Eastern and international affairs
it may be appropriate to mention an old Chinese proverb.
This says, in effect, that at the right time one’s ‘teacher’
appears to offer guidance, encouragement, and support.
Professor D. C. Watt, Professor in International History at the
London School of Economics and Political Science, has been
such to me and I owe him a great debt. I hope therefore, that
he will consider this present study in diplomatic history a
tribute and return, not only for his particular example and
excellence in this field of study, but more especially for the
encouragement and friendship he has shown me over the
years during and since the time I was a part-time post-graduate
student of his at the L.S.E. for my Master’s degree and
doctorate. When things became difficult, as more often than
not they did, it was important to know that I had his invalu­
able support and encouragement to help me persevere in my
efforts.
I should like to thank Professor John Erickson of Edinburgh
University for also having read my doctoral dissertation, ‘The
Formulation of Germany’s Far Eastern Policy 1933—1936’
(University of London, 1972), on which this present study is
based.
My thanks go to the staffs of the libraries and institutions
in wliich I have worked while preparing this study: the British
Library of Political and Economic Science at the L.S.E.,
where I am particularly grateful to Miss Deidre McKellar and
Miss Susan Richards of the Inter-Library Loan desk for their
cheerful endeavours on my behalf ; the Institute of Historical
Research and Senate House Library of the University of
London; the Reading Room of the British Museum; the Public
Record Office, London; the Foreign Documents Centre,
Imperial War Museum, in particular the help afforded by
Miss Angela Raspin when employed there, and her successors,
Roderick Suddaby, Edward Inman, and Stephen In wood; the
late Mr Brian Melland of the Cabinet Office; the Politische
Archiv of the Auswärtiges Amt in Bonn; the Press Library of
the Royal Institute of International Affairs; and the staff of
viii Acknowledgements
the Library and Records Department of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, London.
I am especially grateful for the willing and constant help
given by Mr Kenneth Hiscock of the German Documents
Section of the Library and Records Department, Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, London. He has been a veritable mine
of information, and unstinting and uncomplaining in his
assistance. This help is warmly remembered.
I should also like to express a word of thanks to my German
colleague on Series B of Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen
Politik 1918—1945, Dr Harald Schinkel, of the Auswärtiges
Amt, Bonn. On a number of occasions he provided invaluable
assistance by checking the daily Journals of the German
Foreign Office records in order to verify the authorship of
many unsigned memoranda, as well as helping to decipher
otherwise illegible signatures.
For enabling me to purchase microfilm and other materials
necessary for my research I am grateful both to the Central
Research Fund, University of London, and the Institute of
Historical Research, University of London, for the Lindley
Studentship 1968—69.
I must also thank Professor Dr Bemd Martin of the Uni­
versity of Freiburg for very kindly sending me an outline of
part of the contents of the private papers of one of von
Ribbentrop’s collaborators, Dr Friedrich Wilhelm Hack, and
for allowing me to use this outline in my book. I am also ex­
tremely grateful to Dr Meier Michaelis, Research Associate at
the University of Jerusalem, for extracts from a document
from the Military Archives at Freiburg. I should also like to
thank Matild E. Holomany, Director of the Berlin Document
Centre, for interesting and useful information about Ambas­
sador Oskar Trautmann.
A study such as this also requires two other kinds of
acknowledgement. Firstly, to the lecturers who stimulated
my interest in modem history: Dr John Lander and Dr Michael
Fry (who subsequently moved to Canada and the United
States) of the City of London College, now part of the City
of London Polytechnic; Miss Hilda Lee, Mr George Grün, and
Professor W. N. Medlicott of the L.S.E. To the latter, and his
successor as Stevenson Professor of International History at
the London School of Economics, Professor James Joli, I
should like to express my thanks for the help and kindness I
Acknowledgements ix
always found in the Department of International History.
Secondly, I must acknowledge my debt to the many other
scholars who have worked in the field of Nazi Germany’s
relations with the countries of the Far East, their examples
and scholarship having helped signpost my own path through
this complicated subject.
Apart from the published series of German documents and
other works in English, translations from the German are
mine and any errors are therefore mine alone.
I owe an especial debt of gratitude to Mrs Gillian Bennett
for having so willingly and ably undertaken the difficult task
of reading this book in typescript form and suggesting stylistic
and other improvements. She also provided invaluable help at
subsequent stages.
I must also thank Miss Kathleen Jones for the assistance she
provided.
I am particularly grateful to Mrs Pamela Sparks for stepping
in at extremely short notice and taking over from me the find
typing of the manuscript when other tasks ate away at my
time.
I should also like to thank Mr Raymond M. Hyatt for having
drawn the maps.
My thanks also go to Alfred Metzner Verlag, Frankfurt-am-
Main for permission to use a slightly adapted and amended
version of the chart on The Structure of National Socialist
Foreign Policy 1933—1938’ from Hans-Adolf Jacobsen,
Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik 1933—1938 (1968).
In conclusion, I should like to thank both the members of
the Publications Committee of the London School of Eco­
nomics 8c Political Science and the Isobel Thornley Bequest
Fund Committee (University of London) for their generous
assistance in ensuring publication of this book.
Contents
Page
Acknowledgements vii
List of illustrations xi
Abbremations xii
Introduction 1
I Weimar Germany and the Manchurian Crisis 1931—1933 9
II The Machtergreifung and Policy Conflicts over Manchukuo
1933-1935 24
III German Interests in China 1933—1935 52
IV Diplomacy and Japanese Issues 1933—1935 79
V Agreement with China: The Army, HAPRO, and China
1933-1936 108
VI Agreement with Manchukuo: The Kiep Mission
1935-1936 146
VII Agreement with Japan: The Wilhelmstrasse and von
Ribbentrop ’s Anti-Comintern Pact Negotiations
1935-1936 175
VIII The Period of Tenuous Balance, January—June 1937 209
IX Germany and the Sino—Japanese War 229
I. July—September 1937
II. October 1937—January 1938
X The balance’ Abandoned: Von Ribbentrop and Far
Eastern Policy. February—July 1938 291
Conclusion 332
Notes 342
Bibliography 400
Index 421