Friday, 13 October

Dull

Yesterday a thousand American planes bombarded areas around Taiwan and Lamay Island. Today they continued. If the American army can land on Taiwan, then liberating China will be much quicker. This is a piece of the best news.

At 3.30 in the afternoon the Turkish Ambassador visited me. He has been recalled to Turkey (for health reasons), so he came to say goodbye.

The Red Army has captured Riga, and the Allies have recovered Athens, the capital of Greece.

The American newspapers published the latest news from the Vatican, saying that in October 1943, the German Garrison Commander stationed in Rome, General Reiner Stahel, told a certain representative of the Vatican, saying that in September 1941, Goering talked to Stalin’s son Jacob Stalin (Yakov Dzhugashvili) in Crainhall. Goering strongly said that the civilisation and advancement of Europe is better than Russia, but Jacob Stalin (he was only 34 years old) was not moved as he firmly believed that Russian culture and Moscow would become the centre of world politics, science and economics, he said he rarely met his father and had no special privileges. At the end he said Soviet people absolutely believe in Communism. Goering was, on the contrary, touched by his words. This type of patriotism is very respectable.

I studied Russian from 5.00 to 7.30 in the afternoon.