Friday, 10 November
Hong Kong flew to Chongqing.
At 2.45 a.m. I went with Wu Tiecheng (吳鐵城)[1] and others to the Kai Tak Airport. (Fu) Bingkun (傅秉坤)[2] and his wife, (Fu) Bingyi’s (傅秉彝)[3] wife and (Song) Qiongfang (宋瓊芳)[4] have been waiting for me here to see me off. The plane took off at 3.30 and arrived at Guilin at 6.30. The plane stopped for a while for petrol and flew again at 7.00. When the plane took off the captain was so careless that he put one wheel of the plane into the mud. We had no other solution but to leave the plane and use a big lorry to pull the plane out. We resumed flying until 8.00. At 11.00 we arrived at Chongqing. (Local Chongqing time was 10.00.) On the way, though our plane flew high, I did not feel dizzy as the weather was fine. Tianjuan, Huang Junbi (黃君璧)[5], and Yukun and others waited for me at the airport. Then I went directly to Wang Chonghui’s (王寵惠)[6] home at No.3 Lianglukou New Estate. It happened that Wang Chonghui was in a meeting and had not returned so I went to Ma Chaojun’s (馬超俊)[7] home to have lunch. Li Wenfan (李文範)[8] and Li Fulin (李福林)[9] and others were there too. At 2.00 I was back at Wang Chonghui’s home and talked to him for a while then I took an afternoon nap. At 4.00 I went with Wang Chonghui to see the areas bombarded by the enemy. There were many changes. Wang Chonghui said 10,000 citizens had been killed in the bombardment on the 3rd and 4th, but because the government did not want to arouse fear, the casualties were just announced at around 4,000 to 5,000. The Japanese bombardment of the urban areas was without military value. They only wanted to use it to scare people. As a matter of fact this would do the opposite and would make the Chinese hate the Japanese more. The foolishness and brutality of the Japanese is rare among human beings. Then I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to talk to Xu Mo(徐謨)[10] with regard to the Japanese aerial bombardment of Chongqing and the funding of the visa department stationing in Hong Kong, as well as other matters.
At 6.00 I went to the residence of Zeng Qiwei (曾啟威). Then I went to Xiao Tongci’s (蕭同滋)[11] home to see Wu Tiecheng. I had dinner at Zeng’s residence. Liu Weichi (劉維熾)[12], Chan Chak(陳策)[13],Hu Wencan(胡文燦) and others lived at Zeng’s residence.
At 11.00 I returned to Wang Chonghui’s home and talked to him until 2.30 a.m. He told me as follows: 1) The story about the difficulties getting approval for the Sino-Soviet Commercial Treaty and the attitude of General Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石)[14] with regard to this treaty in the past ten days; 2) That Sun Fo (孫科)[15]left Moscow because of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. He felt embarrassed about staying in the Soviet Union. In Italy, he had talked to the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ciano. He had sent a report back, but what Ciano said was no different from what he had indicated to our government earlier. 3) What Sun Fo talked to Halifax about was not very productive. All in all, Sun Fo had travelled to and from Britain and France because he felt embarrassed about staying in Moscow. Wang Chonghui criticized Sun Fo as follows: 1) He was no good at using people. He could not use good people and could not get rid of bad ones. 2.) He was bad-tempered. Wang Chonghui also said that Sun Fo did not discuss the two visits with him. (I thought this seemed to be the fault of Sun Fo. First of all, they were such close friends. Secondly Wang was the head of the department). As for Sun Fo being no good at using people, what Wang referred to was what Yu Ming (余銘) and Ling Jidong (凌繼東) did in the Soviet Union at this time. What Wang said quite made sense. 4) The British Ambassador to China told Wang Chonghui what David Kung (孔令侃)[16] did in Hong Kong, saying the Hong Kong Governor was very unhappy with Kung and wanted originally to put him under custody. Afterwards the British Ambassador to China tried his best to dissuade him from doing so for the sake of Sino-British relations as it would embarrass President H.H. Kung (孔祥熙)[17]. Finally, the Hong Kong Governor asked David Kung to leave Hong Kong. The British Ambassador first told Wang Chonghui the various things about David Kung and Wang told H.H. Kung about it somewhat. But he defended his son so Wang Chonghui did not say any more. It was not until the British Ambassador talked to H.H. Kung directly that he then believed of his son’s misbehaviour. It is really difficult for a parent to know their children’s faults.
[1] Wu Tiecheng(1888-1953) was a Cantonese politician From Zhongshan, Guandgong.
[2] Fu Bingchang’s 6th brother.
[3] Fu Bingchang’s 9th brother.
[4] Fu Bingchang’s concubine.
[5] Huang Junbi(1898-1991) was a native from Nanhoi, Guangdong. He was a famous Chinese painter.
[6] Wang Zhonghui(1881-1958) was a Hong Kong-educated law expert who received his doctorate from Yale University. He came from a Hong Kong Christian family and was a close friend of Fu Bingchang.
[7] Ma Chaojun(1886-1977) was identified as associated with the Prince’s Clique. He was a native of Taishan, Guangdong. He was a politician.
[8] Li Wenfan (1884-1953) was a native of Nanhoi, Guangdong. He was a politician who had studied in Japan. He was a close associate of Hu Hanmin (1879-1936).
[9] Li Fulin (1872-1952) was a Cantonese general. He was a follower of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He died in Hong Kong in 1952.
[10]Xu Mo(1893-1956) was from Jiangsu and had studied in the United States . He was a diplomat and judge.
[11] Xiao Tongci(1895-1973) was from Hunan. He had been the head of the Central News Agency. He went to Taiwan after 1949.
[12] Liu Weichi (1892-1955) was a native of Taishan, Guangdong. He had studied at Hawaii University. He was a politician and a friend of Fu Bingchang.
[13] Chan Chak (1892-1949) was from Hainan Island. He was dubbed the “one-legged general” and was a navy leader in the Nationalist Government.
[14] Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975).
[15] Sun Fo (1891-1973) was the son of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He had studied at UC Berkeley and Columbia University. He was an expert on urban planning and had been the Mayor of Canton (Guangzhou).
[16] David Kung (1916-1992) was the eldest son of H.H. Kung.
[17] Dr. H.H. Kung(1881-1967) had studied in Oberlin College and Yale University. He was a top financial official of the Nationalist Government.