Chongqing, Fanzhuang

Tuesday, 26 December

I woke up in the morning to prepare the report for the Sino-Soviet Commercial Treaty.

At twelve Sun Fo invited Ye Chucang and Wang Chonghui to have lunch, to discuss the approval of the Sino-Soviet Commercial Treaty. I intended to give the draft report which I would read in the meeting of the Legislative Yuan to Ye Chucang and Wang Chonghui for discussion. They both agreed. Ye Chucang asked me again about the treatment of the Chinese personnel for the branch of the commercial department. I said since there was no regulation for this it certainly meant they would not receive preferential treatment. They should be absolutely under our jurisdiction. With regard to the establishment of the branch of the commercial department, Wang Chonghui suggested adding the following: The foreign trade of the Soviet Union was handled by the state, which was contrary to other countries. Therefore, the Soviet Union could not cite the clause of most-favoured-nation. I added it accordingly. We would raise the results after discussion in the general meeting of the Legislative Yuan. At the same time, I would forward one copy of my draft report to the General first, and Wang Chonghui would report what we had discussed to him. As for whether we should publicise the treaty after approval, Wang Chonghui thought that we should so as to pacify speculation outside, which would assume that we had a secret agreement with the Soviet Union. Wang Chonghui said even during the previous visit to Chongqing the British Ambassador also asked us about this matter. He also said if it was possible we should send one copy to the British Ambassador. Sun Fo also agreed. Therefore, we decided if General Chiang agreed, we would make it public after approval, together with my report.

In the evening I had a chat with Sun Fo. He suggested I could be the Ambassador to Italy and said he could be of help. I was really touched.