Chongqing

Wang’s residence

Monday, 18 December

At 9.00 a.m. we had the memorial week service in the Grand Hall of the Nationalist Government. Sun Fo made a report on his liaison with various countries such as the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Italy. What he said was on the whole the same as he had told me. After the end of memorial week, the party headquarters held a colloquium. He Yingqin reported the military situation in a quite detailed manner. He said there would be good news for the Nanning side very soon. (Our army could cut off the enemy.) The colloquium ended at 10.45. Afterwards there was an air-raid siren so I immediately returned home. Chen Mingshu came to talk with me for quite a long time. He would meet the Burmese representative, Ganga Singh, in the International Hotel to have lunch tomorrow at noon and asked me to join them. I told him the India situation in detail, saying that according to my own observation, the Indian question was not with Britain but with internal reform. It was because of its complicated peoples, its religious superstition and underdeveloped education, as well as its caste divisions, of which it still had a long way to go before becoming a democratic nation.

He Sui and Sun invited us to have dinner. (Yunzhongyaji) We asked literati Wang and Peng to draw a picture of a plum flower together. It was quite good.

At 9.30 I was back home. It happened that Sun Fo returned and we talked for two long hours. He told me as follows: 1) On his arrival in the Soviet Union, he immediately sent Marshal Stalin the Commercial Treaty, loan contract and the contract prepared by General Chiang, giving Stalin three weeks to study the terms. At the time they met, Stalin replied readily with regard to the loan, saying that we have clearly considered what Sun Fo proposed and it was fine. Sun Fo was afraid that Stalin might not be clear about the whole thing so he explained to him that the loan was for our resistance war. Stalin instantly replied that he agreed on the US$1,500,000 which Sun Fo suggested. He said “I’ll give it to you.” As for the detailed procedures Stalin asked Sun Fo to discuss these with Mr. Mikoyan. As for the types of ammunition China needed Sun Fo could discuss this with Voroshilov. As for the commercial treaty Sun Fo could also discuss this with Mikoyan. As for the treaty prepared by Chiang, Stalin thought that it was still not the right time. Firstly, he feared that Britain and the United States might be suspicious. Secondly, he feared that people would say China had adopted Communism and would give Wang Jingwei and others an excuse to oppose our government. Sun Fo immediately cabled General Chiang with Stalin’s opinions and General Chiang agreed with what Stalin said. Afterwards the negotiations with Mikoyan and Voroshilov went quite smoothly. During the negotiations Molotov suddenly asked Sun Fo to meet, saying that the news (of negotiations) had leaked out and French reporters had been to him for enquiry. Molotov asked Sun Fo to check if there was a spy in the Chinese Embassy. Sun Fo immediately asked Ling Jidong and others (Ling was very angry) and as a result he learnt that there was no such thing. He was afraid that the Soviet side would change its earlier decision on such a pretext so he was very worried. He reported this to General Chiang and Chiang was also very anxious. It happened that the Soviet Union had general meetings, which meant the negotiation should come to a halt for two or three weeks. One could imagine how worrisome it would be during this period of time. When Sun Fo met them again and negotiated, they acted readily and the negotiations ended in several days. Mr. Mikoyan then celebrated the success by having a feast in a big ship on the canal. He invited many guests. Afterwards Molotov organized a feast in his countryside villa. Stalin, Voroshilov and the People’s Commissars of various departments (There were some thirty departments, which included five People’s Commissars and the Deputy Head of the Legislative Council) attended and Stalin was quite happy. He used his left hand to embrace Sun Fo and his right for Voroshilov, saying the Sino-Soviet friendliness was eternal. Sun Fo mentioned General Galen and Marshal Blucher to Stalin because General Chiang wanted Stalin to dispatch them to China. Marshal Stalin said Galen was fond of women. The Japanese sent him three beautiful Japanese women. He accepted them and he leaked military news to Japan. Therefore he has already been shot. (The man deserves to be shot and he has been shot.) This happened last October, but Yang Jie still said that he saw Galen this February, which was enough to prove he was unreliable. Sun Fo said Stalin treated people in a peculiar way. When Sun Fo left Stalin took him outside on his own. The driver of the car from the Chinese embassy arrived a little late. Stalin asked why he was late. The driver said as he parked the car in a quite distant place. Stalin told him that in the future he should be careful with his service. He also asked him how he was going and shook hands with him. On the way back the driver asked Sun Fo that the man whom just talked to him looked like their supreme leader Stalin. Sun Fo said yes he was indeed Mr. Stalin. The driver’s hands and legs trembled. On returning back he told his fellows happily that he shook hands and talked with Mr. Stalin, which he deemed a lifelong honour. In the evening he drank a lot and got drunk. Afterwards he fell ill for several days. Sun Fo felt that his mission was over therefore he left the Soviet Union for France. In less than one week General Chiang cabled him to return to the Soviet Union. As his daughter was having an appendix operation he stayed in France for three more weeks. General Chiang asked him to investigate whether the military negotiations among Britain, France and the Soviet Union had included anything related to Far Eastern issues. If yes, he asked to be either a participator or an observer. This was a really difficult matter. It happened that the Soviet side denied this therefore Sun Fo took the reply to General Chiang. Then General Chiang asked Sun Fo to ask Stalin if the Soviet-Japanese negotiations was coming into business with Japan while abandoning China. Sun Fo thought that it was no good to ask Stalin directly, therefore he talked to Mikoyan, saying that with regard to Soviet-Japanese negotiation China was having suspicions that the Soviet Union would change its policy. Sun Fo asked Mikoyan to ask Stalin on China’s behalf. After Mikoyan met Stalin he replied that with regard to this enquiry from us Stalin was quite displeased. It was because the Soviet Union was so sincere and frank to China and tried its best to help us, but we were still suspicious that the Soviet Union would betray us. He was simply very puzzled. The issue was settled only after Sun Fo tried extremely hard to explain. It happened that Sun Fo did not meet Stalin during the second visit to Moscow. Firstly because during the previous visit the Soviet authority had bid farewell to him indicating the mission had been accomplished, and secondly because what General Chiang asked him to meet Stalin was hard to tell Stalin directly. It was not as Song Ziwen and Wang Chonghui said, that Stalin refused to meet him. Finally Sun Fo said that he planned to move to Fanzhuang and live there temporarily. His home was quite spacious and he invited me to live with him. I agreed.