Friday, 12 May

Fine

In the morning I studied Russian. As the weather was quite fine, we moved the class to the Embassy verandah but it was too dusty.

In the evening I invited British Ambassador Kerr, the head of the British military delegation Lieutenant General Burrows, Admiral Fisher, Major General [unclear], and American Charge d’Affairés Hamilton, Balfour and Crosthwaite and others. Kerr talked about the Chinese war situation. I told him frankly about the influence of the two agreements between Japan and the Soviet Union, and Japan wanting to increase its pressure on us, with an attempt to break open the Peiping-Hankow and Guangdong-Hankow railways, so as to link up on land its troops in South China and Nanyang. As a result, China is suffering a lot more. He said he hadn’t realised this point previously. With regard to the opening of the second war zone, he said it should be July or August, when the weather will be fine. This is because for such a massive landing good weather for three to four days is necessary. But Lieutenant General Burrows told Military Attaché Guo that the landing shouldn’t be too late, as troops amounting to a million need two or three months of continuous replenishment for landing and fighting. So it shouldn’t be later than July. From this I thought it could only be July.

This afternoon, a Soviet professor gave a public speech about the New Order of East Asia. He criticised Japan on many aspects and said that it would not succeed. It was worth paying attention to it.