Wednesday, 16 April

Twentieth day of the third lunar month

I had a long talk with Chen Bozhuang. He mentioned the New Fourth Army Affairs as one of the many causes of the change in Soviet attitude. I disagreed. Stalin’s policy is dictated only by the interests of the U.S.S.R. and that alone, nothing more. Whether [or not] the Chinese Communist Party goes to the dogs has very little to do with the policy of the Kremlin. Furthermore, I agreed with Bernard Shaw who on the twenty-eight of last month issued a statement endorsing the Generalissimo’s advice regarding the Chinese Communists. He said “a united China can clear out Japan and until this is accomplished military disunity is a crime which will discredit the Communists or any other party for generations to come. “When a house is on fire, those who begin to lecture about the danger of sleeping in damp streets and call on the people to resist the fire brigade cannot be tolerated.”