Friday, 24 November

Dull, light rain

I studied Russian from 11.00 until 1.30. I still find the vocabulary is not easy to remember. Therefore I have changed the method to practice to making more sentences with vocabulary in every lesson.

For the past few days with regard to the changes in our Government, some American newspapers praised it as steps towards democracy, some viewed it with suspicion, some even viewed it as a slight change to cheat foreigners, but as a matter of fact there was no change. On 23 October, the Times Weekly published news about China.  It said that the relations between Roosevelt and the Generalissimo were never as bad as they are now. With regard to this the American side is not as sophisticated as the British side in showing general praise. The said magazine also published the telegram from the correspondent at Romania on Times, saying that the he was very suspicious regarding the Soviet policy concerning Romania, and wrote strongly about illegal activities of the Red Army in Romania. These were enough to see the American opinion.

Yesterday over 70 heavy bombers took off from Saipan Island to bombard areas in Tokyo and Yokohama. From now on Japan Proper will be no longer peaceful and it will gradually taste the bitter food. The American side announced that they would avoid bombarding Japanese palaces and shrines, which is an indication that they are not antagonistic toward civilians in Japan.

In the evening Shaozhou came to talk to me, saying that his third daughter Shaolan (actually she is his niece, her father was a a Russian Pole.) originally studied medicine here, but recently because she could not catch up with her study she intends to return to China with him. She is in difficulty as Dihua has no Russian school and Counsellor Chen Jingchen suddenly told Shaozhou that he wanted to propose to Shaolan, which was totally unexpected of him. Shaolan was originally extremely interested in Li Zhaorui, and Li was the same too. But recently he heard that Li and Liu Zhengyu competed for another Russian girl, therefore he told Shaolan about it, but she said she was only interested in Li. Shaozhou was in great difficulty, but Jingchen suddenly suggested this which made him absolutely delighted. He talked to Shaolan yesterday, first she was hesitant that there was a great rift between the ages of the two, but after thorough consideration for the whole of last night, she agreed. Therefore he told Jingchen about the details, and Jingchen is very happy. In the evening Jingchen also told me that he originally wanted to be a bachelor, but his mother is quite old and she sent a letter urging him to marry. He later thought that he has lived for several decades but regretted that it was a great pity that he could not enjoy the happiness of having a family. When he was in China, several friends of his wanted to introduce women to him, but he did not want to marry three types of people. 1) Wealthy girl, 2) Too well-learned girl and 3) Female clerk. Because they would not be happy and competent in handling household affairs. This time he has observed Shaolan for more than a year, he thought she was honest and not extravagant, and handled household affairs in an orderly manner. Though her appearance was deemed by many as mediocre, he found she looked acceptable to him. Therefore he asked for consent from Shaozhou, that Shaozhou would announce it at the banquet next Tuesday and host the wedding next Saturday. I absolutely agreed. When he talked to me his face and ears were flushed. He is extremely honest and Shaolan is a good girl. I think they are well matched.