Friday, 14 July

Fine, sunny and warm

Special envoy Wu Liquan cabled me, saying that he has been instructed to return to Chongqing to report. The Central Government seems to feel that the Xinjiang issue is already serious. It is also a good omen.

With regard to the matter that Secretary Yang Shuren wanted to be transferred back to the Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Ministry replied that according to the regulations he should serve three years so it was turned down. But he is determined to go, so even though I asked Jingchen to urge him it is of no avail. I heard that he has already made arrangements with a certain university in China that on returning he would take up the professorship, so I cabled the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to approve his resignation. He seems to be not right mentally, so I did not really try to force him to stay. Probably the most difficult area to deal with when working in the Chinese Governmental agency is personnel. This is even so in embassies. I have tried my best to urge people here to stay in harmony, but because of family difficulties during the war making people feel unhappy, old vengeances cannot be eliminated easily. Hopefully Shaozhou and Jingchen and others are easy-going, and I am lucky to have their assistance with Embassy affairs. I feel quite relieved that we are able to make everyone cooperate slightly better than the other embassies.