I learned that the following conversation took place in an colonial office in India at around 1901. It was recovered from an old diary written by Wilkins, John J., a low level bureaucrat who was later instrumental in the extension of suffrage to the 2 million Englishmen living in Panjab at the time. He would stand for Parliament twice, and lose both times because of this specific conversation, however.
"Good news, Sir Robert! We just opened Japan for trade!"
"Good show, Wilkins. Now that we beat the Americans and the French to the jewel of east Asia, the world's tea will be all ours, to do with what we please. With Japan in our sphere of influence, those American upstarts can go back and crawl into their hole in Hawaii."
"Jolly good, sir. But the Japanese government is requesting our help."
"Oh, and what do they need?"
"Well, they were wondering if we should be willing to share some military technology with them."
"Good heavens, Wilkins, we already have a legation quarter set up, and some province modifiers that improve their research speed. What more do those blasted Japanese want?"
"Well, sir, they were impressed with our breech-loading rifles. You know, the ones we've been replacing with Gatling guns and bolt-action rifles? They were wondering if we could just give them breech-loading rifles so they could upgrade their army. Oh, and they really would like mechanical production. You know, so they can make more tea and all."
"Certainly not, Wilkins."
"But Sir Robert, why not? We have Bessemer steel and poison gas. The least we could do is help them upgrade their technology to the previous generation from us. I mean, if their army is upgraded, then we won't even have to defend this part of out empire that much."
"Wilkins, I can see why you have never been promoted in colonial service. It is forbidden by the Prime Directive of 1836 to grant technology to other countries. All of the Great Powers and secondary powers are signatories to the Prime Directive. In fact, do you remember when Sweden became a Great Power last year? God save her, but the Queen refused to grant them Great Power recognition until they signed the Prime Directive."
"But Sir Robert, if we could just give Japan Clean Coal, we might not have to import anymore coal from Russian Manchuria. Surely the Queen is tired of lining the pockets of the Russian Czar because we use all of our coal building three times as many steamers as we need?"
"Certainly not, Wilkins. And I don't want to here anymore about it. And before you go, make sure that all those Japanese members of the Emperor's family who will be attending Oxford next year are never allowed to take any science, economics, or philosophy courses. We don't want to inadvertently violate the Prime Directive just because a Japanese royal was accidentally allowed to take a course in Organic Chemistry."