Saturday, 29 March

From 8.00 to 9.00 we had the Yellow Flower Mound Memorial. Zou Lu spoke. He is one of the remaining few who took part in it, so he should speak well, but his Hakka Mandarin is horrible. I wonder how many can understand him. At 9.30 the Central Executive Committee meeting. The Generalissimo spoke. His report was quite good. He emphasised the importance of the economic problem (70% economic and 30% military) From 3.00 to 7.00 in the afternoon colloquium. The Generalissimo spoke for over an hour and proposed the creation of two new ministers 1) commerce and 2) food control. He advocated the return of land revenue to the Central Government. Zhang Ji (張繼) expressed apprehension regarding the CCP’s influence in the government and accused even those besides the Generalissimo as members of that party. I have never seen the Generalissimo in such red-hot temper when he heard what Zhang Ji said. He told Zhang not to accuse everyone of being CCP. This is precisely what the Chinese communists wanted – a split amongst ourselves. We should have confidence in ourselves and believe none of us to be CCP. Even the Chinese communists, added the Generalissimo, we should regard them not as Chinese communists and hope they may come over to us. His reasoning is quite sound and his attitude very statesmanlike, only he went a little too far in digging up Zhang’s past, and he accused the latter of having done or said nothing profitable for the Party. The attack is too personal, and hard for anyone with self-respect to digest, but Zhang made the best of a bad situation and both apologised to each other to the amazement of all of us. Feng Yuxiang stood up to explain his negotiations with the CCP during the New Fourth Army affairs. It is quite unnecessary in my humble opinion.

From 7.30 to 10.00 p.m. I had supper at Deng Gang (鄧剛)’s house. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were there and Ma Xiuzhong also went. She is studying book-keeping in her spare time and even does her own cooking. She is much better than Miss Chui in this respect.