Ever since the Sino-Japanese war had begun in 1937, Britain had learned in a pro-Chinese neutrality, providing assistance to China under the grounds it was better to keep Japan bogged down in China as the best way of ensuring that Japan did not attack either the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand together with Britain's Asian colonies. The British historian Victor Rothwell wrote: "In the middle 1930s, if China had a Western friend it was Britain. In 1935–36 Britain gave China real help with its finances and showed real concern about Japanese encroachments in north China. Realising that the only hope of inducing Japan to moderate these activities lay in an Anglo-American joint front, Britain proposed that a number of times, but was always rebuffed by Washington". From time to time, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek hinted that he might be willing to make peace with Japan. Given the crisis caused by the oil embargo, the Foreign Office in London felt it was imperative to keep China fighting and viewed reinforcing the Hong Kong garrison as a symbol of support for China. As the British Army was fully involved in the campaigns in North Africa together with the Horn of Africa a request made on 19 September 1941 to have Canada provide two battalions to Hong Kong. The British request of 19 September stated that "there have been signs of a certain weakening of Japan's attitude towards us" and argued that sending two battalions to Hong Kong would "have a very strong moral effect on the whole of the Far East".