Friday, 15 October
The Afghanistan National Day. The Afghanistan Ambassador held a reception in the Embassy from 6.00 to 8.00 p.m. I talked with Donald Nelson about the three foreign ministers’ conference and the Soviet attitude. He asked for my opinion. I told him that the Soviet Union surely didn’t want to discuss the Soviet-Poland border problems and also those of the three states in the Baltic Sea. He agreed and thought that the attitude of the Polish Government was wrong. As to the second war zone, he said according to what he knew, Eden has settled the agenda of the meeting with Maisky in London, he said there was no point in the Soviet Union publishing an article in the newspapers to request the opening of the second war zone. I replied that the second war zone was something that the Soviet Union wanted the most. It was natural that it kept asking for it. There was no wonder at this request. In the end he said that he wanted to visit me before leaving Moscow. I said he was most welcome.
Attaché Hu said that the Turkish Ambassador, Mr. Khussein Rahib Baydur, had arrived in Moscow today. While he was the Ambassador to the Soviet Union, he had married a Soviet novelist. Later he was transferred to Italy and his wife went with him. Then for some unknown reason, his wife left Italy for the Soviet Union and married another Soviet man and they had one son. Attaché Hu met her in a certain Moscow University professor’s place yesterday and she showed no sign of embarrassment. As for the Turkish Ambassador, he himself is archly pro-Soviet in the Turkish diplomatic circle, and his appointment here perhaps has important meaning. I talked with Hu with regard to the Soviet situation for a long time. Hu can communicate with the Soviet people so he knows the Soviet Union well.