Friday, 16 June

Fine, quite warm

At 11.00 am first I went with Shaozhou and Daichu to the Consulate. Then we joined up with Jiesan and went to the Commissioner’s Office at 11.30. Commissioner Koptelov accompanied us to the Uzbek Repulblic Government building (Also called the Red Wall) to visit Premier Abdurakhmanov. He is not yet 40, and is quite intelligent. The Republic’s controlling power lies in his hands. Shaozhou said that within the (Communist) party in the Soviet Union he is quite powerful, within the Central Committee he always talked a lot. It seemed to be that he was supported by Stalin as a close associate. I expressed my gratitude for his warm reception first, then I talked about the importance of Sino-Soviet friendship and that the leaders of the two countries should stay close. He also said they should because of thehistory and culture, as well as other relations and that China and the Soviet Union should cooperate. The relationship between Uzbek and China should be like this. He presented me with a poem which has been newly published. The poet’s father had served as an official in China and he praised Chinese culture in many of his poems. I also asked him to look after Jiesan and help him solve all cases. He said because of the Sino-Soviet friendship, there was nothing that could not be solved. His tone was sincere. When I left, we took a picture in his garden.

At 1.00 p.m. I was back at the Consulate to send our telegram. After lunch there I took a rest then I went back to the villa.

At 8.30 p.m. I went with Shaozhou, Diachu and Jiesan to the Grand Theatre again on the invitation of Premier Abdurakhmanov. The first performance of tonight’s programme Nasyrova who played and sang the first act of Carmen. Both were sung well. After that she sang Layla & Majnun (It is a tragedy by (name unclear) 1441-1501). It is an Arabian story. The outline of the story is as follows. The clan head Omur has a daughter called Layla. She is pretty and smart. During the school graduation examination her classmate Kais advocated the equality of male and female so he was expelled. Layla was sympathetic to Kais and they fell in love. Omur was quite angry and banned his daughter from being in love with Kais. The second act was that Layla missed Kais very much. Her mother was sympathetic to it but her father did not understand. Kais and his father proposed a marriage to her father, but he declined and sent his daughter to marry the clan head Ibn Salane. The third act was Kais on the mountain missing his lover. He then met Prince Naufal hunting. The Prince learnt the details and was willing to help. It happened that Kais’s father and clan Head Omur came with his guards. They fought with the Prince’s soldiers. Within the Omur clan a certain General used a large long stone hammer but luckily the Prince was brave and fought back at him. He defeated Omur. He wanted to kill him, but Kais did not want to kill him and get his daughter in this way, so he stopped the Prince. Omur then told the Prince that her daughter had married Salane, and her daughter also agreed. The Prince wanted his own daughter to marry Kais. Kais declined, saying that he only loved Layla, so people could do nothing to help. At this time Layla came and sang bitterly. The fourth act was the marriage in Salane’s palace. Kais came and Layla heard that and wanted to talk to him. The Salane people expelled Kais. Omur urged his daughter to marry Salane but she was unwilling. At this time someone informed her that Kais had married the Prince’s daughter. She was very sad on learning this. Salane proposed to Layla again, but she was still unwilling. Salane was so angry that he committed suicide. The fifth act was that Kais cried before his father’s tomb. Layla wanted to enter and talk to him. Kais originally wanted to embrace her, but on thinking that his father died because of Layla, and Layla was unfaithful to him he declined. Layla collapsed and died. Kais saw this and was extremely sad. He embraced Layla’s corpse and died.) The third act was very inferior to her Carmen performance. The third session was the Red Army singing and dancing. During the interval, Wallace and Ambassador Harriman raised glasses to celebrate American air forces using China as a base to bombard Japan. The Uzbek Premier Abdurakhmanov, Vice President Kabulov, Vice President Kabanov, and the People’s Commissar for Agricultural, Rahbinov, all raised their glasses too. Commissioner Koptelov talked to me again about the Sino-Soviet friendship. He was quite enthusiastic about it. As a result it seems that Jiesan’s work will be smoother here and I was relieved. The show ended at 12/15. I sent Jiesan back to the Consulate first then I returned to the villa. I arrived there there at 1.30 a.m.