Dushiqiao

Sunday, 10 December

I woke early in the morning. I took a walk outdoors then I returned home. I read the report with regard to the CCP’s activities. The most important things are: 1) drawing the so-called “reasonable levy” (which was invented by Yan Xishan); 2) reducing interest to 10 per cent (20 per cent for civil law) ; 3) decreasing tax by one third; 4) storing provisions; 5) issuing notes and restricting the usage of notes of the Central Government; 6) issuing public bonds; 7) changing the county system. During this time of national crisis, the CCP was still insincere in its cooperation. I felt very bad for it.

In the afternoon I went to Lou Tongsun’s place. His wife was also there. We arranged to go and visit the waterfall if the weather tomorrow is fine. Then I visited Shi Shangkuan (史尚寬) to discuss Legislative Yuan matters.

In the evening I studied closely the Sino-Soviet Commercial Treaty contents. The Soviet side requested one commercial representative and two deputy representatives. They would be attached to the embassy personnel, enjoying diplomatic treatment. The Soviet Union would also open commercial branches at Tianjin, Hankow, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Lanzhou. Although the commercial bureau would be entitled to diplomatic treatment, in terms of personnel, duties, contracts and so on, they would still be governed by the sentencing of the Chinese courts. Also, as for the treatment of Soviet personnel, its detailed regulations were more or less the same as the provisional Sino-Soviet Commercial Treaty (1934) and Iran-Soviet Commercial Treaty (1935). There was no so-called unequal treaty. I was simply very puzzled as to why it aroused such strong protest from various sides.