Gunboats, Empire and the China Station

Matthew Heaslip is Lecturer in Naval History at the University of Portsmouth, UK.

Contents
Table of Illustrations
Introduction
Part I: Joining the China Station
Looking Beyond the Battle-Fleet
The Royal Navy’s Role in Britain’s Interwar Foreign Policy
Britain’s China Conundrum

Part II: Between China and Japan, the China Station’s Strategic Balance
The Right Warships in the Right Places?
China: Friend or Foe?
Surplus to Requirements: The China Station Ashore
The Hong Kong Question
The Cooperation Challenge
Europe’s Retreat and an Emergent ‘Special Relationship’

Part III: Adapting to a New China in a Violent Peace
Britain’s Changing Interests in China
The Royal Navy’s Growing Piracy Challenge
An Exceptional Deployment: the Shanghai Task Force
Britain’s Global Struggle Against Communism
A Changing Role in Protecting British Civilians

Part IV: Technological development and imperial policing
Maintaining Imperial Prestige:
Hermes the Trickster
Understanding China
Responding to Crises
Naval Gunfire at Wanxian and Nanjing
Controlling the Violence

Part V: Changing Attitudes, Ideas, and Approaches
Late-Victorian Gunboat Diplomacy in East Asia
A Failed Attempt at Returning to Pre-War Ways
The Impact of the May Thirtieth Incident
A Double Crisis: Gunboat Diplomacy Living up to its Reputation
The Gunboat Retreat
Sailing to War
Conclusion
The Royal Navy’s Peacetime Frontline
Appendix: Examples of Key Warship Types
Bibliography
Index