The China Station handled piracy within a much larger strategic command. Howard Kelly's September 1931 report lists the Cantonese advance toward Nanking, possible unrest as the Yangtze fell, Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and unrest in the Atlantic Fleet. The British government's economy measures and the consequences of sterling leaving the gold standard added pressures from home. Conditions in Britain could shape this distant deployment as sharply as events in East Asia. These competing demands explain why piracy patrols were only one part of the station's work.
Chapter · 1:17-3:47
The China Station's crowded strategic agenda in 1931
Admiral Howard Kelly's 1931 report shows the China Station balancing unrest in China and the Atlantic Fleet, Japanese aggression, and Britain's financial crisis at the end of a long supply line.