Friday, 17 November

Snow

From 11.00 until 1.30 I studied Russian.

In the past few days British newspapers and newspapers here all published about Churchill’s visit to Paris that he discussed with Charles de Gaulle the organisation of a military, political, and economic alliance of Northwestern Europe. Some regarded this as a movement against the Soviet Union. To sum up, Britain and France are getting close, France has disbanded the guerrillas, and Belgium has also issued the same order. From the reactions of the Belgian and French Communist Parties, one would suspect that De Gaulle wanting to visit the Soviet Union is no more than perfunctory action towards the Soviet Union for the time being.

Zhou Shangyou sent me a telegram, saying he would be posted to Afghanistan as Minister. Xu Mo will replace him as the Ambassador to Turkey. Zhou Shangyou being transferred to Turkey was certainly a reflection of the discontent of the Foreign Ministry towards him. For Xu Mo it seemed to be a promotion but is actually a demotion, because Turkey is absolutely unimportant, and far from as comfortable as Australia. Probably someone in Chongqing wants to have his position. One cannot always occupy a comfortable position for too long. Also when Xu Mo was in power he was quite mean to people, so people treated him the same way. The God looks closely at us if we do bad things and we could suffer finally. We should be watchful with our own behaviour.

In the evening, Jingchen gave a cocktail party in the Embassy. Garreau said he was not getting on very well with the former French Foreign Minister, because they had a difference in opinion regarding the Soviet Union. Now De Gaulle comes to the Soviet Union, if he cannot satisfy what he advocates, he will resign. Garreau is quite good and knows the Soviet Union well. If he is allowed to quit, it is a loss for France.

News from the American Embassy said Maxwell Hamilton will become American Ambassador to Finland. I immediately sent a congratulatory telegram to him.