Friday, 26 March

Twenty-first day of the second lunar month

At 11.30 a.m. the Czechoslovakian Ambassador Zdenek Fierlinger visited me. He said that Stalin had originally opposed opening the war zone in North Africa and he thought it was already too late, but that the United States did not care much. In the beginning, the North Africa campaign had scored a little success, so the Soviet Union had to agree reluctantly. But now the United States still tried to use Giraud who was pro-German in North Africa. This was unwise and reflected that the American authorities did not really understand the actual situation in Europe. It is also bad policy that the North Africa warfare is dragging on. The British Chief of Staff initially told Czechoslovakia that in 1941 they would send troops to land in Europe and asked Czechoslovakia to get ready. But since Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Britain has slowed its advance. But Prime Minister Churchill promised he would open the second war zone in 1942, but until now there has been no news about it. Not only is Russia not satisfied with this, the people of France and Czechoslovakia are also disappointed. This gives strength to those who are pro-Germany, and the work in the future will be even more difficult. I asked him whether the United States or Britain were unwilling. Ambassador Fierlinger said it was the United States. The United States said that they had to wait until 12 million troops finished training, only then would they would start to move, and demand starting the discussion of post-war issues. (The Soviet Union advocated talks after defeating Germany.) And recently, Poland talked about the territorial problems with the Soviet Union, and the United States did not force Finland to talk peace unilaterally with the Soviet Union, and let it lean towards Germany and continue to fight the Soviet Union. All these made people feel that the United States was procrastinating and did not want to fight immediately. This put Czechoslovakia in a very difficult position, as in case there was any slight disagreement among the allies, Czechoslovakia would suffer most, therefore he was deeply worried. He was said to be very close to the Soviet Government, and his words evidenced that the Soviet side was really unhappy with American policy.

In the afternoon the Afghanistan Ambassador visited me. He was pessimistic towards the post-war order, that all the big powers still didn’t have understanding, that they still adopted the aggressive imperial policy. For example, Britain did not allow Indian Independence, saying that the Atlantic Charter applied to Czechoslovakia, but did not apply to India. Therefore after the end of this war, countries will prepare for a second war. Probably until the end of our lives we still might not be able to see a peaceful and happy world.

At 6.00 I went to see the Swedish Minister V. Assarson. He said as follows: 1) When Satō first arrived, he really wanted to mediate the German-Soviet war, but it’s hopeless now. Satō also at one time advocated that China and Japan should negotiate a peace settlement, and Japan came to an understanding with the United States to divide power in the Pacific. Satō also said that the Sino-Japanese war was its biggest mistake, and the German-Soviet war too. 2) Last year the German army wanted to invade Iran via the Caucasus, in order to link up with the Japanese army, but Hitler wanted to attack Stalingrad to encircle Moscow, and now it is unsuccessful. This summer Germany will change its tactic and concentrate its power on attacking one small point. Now Germany has conscripted males in occupied territory to go to German factories to work, and dispatched all German workers to fight on the front lines, thus concentrating all power for a final strike. The Soviet power by itself is not enough to defeat Germany, if Britain and the United States do not open the second war zone, the future will be very worrying. 3) Finland can not make peace with the Soviet Union because the German Foreign Minister told Finland that they could come to an agreement with the Soviet Union anytime and then turn against Finland. From the Swedish standpoint, the ideal would be a peaceful Soviet-Finnish deal. Last year Swedish newspapers advocated this, and it irritated Germany, banning six Swedish transport food ships, and oppressing Sweden in many ways. But recently the Swedish armed forces have been a lot more efficient and, besides heavy bombers, all the other military preparations are fine, so Germany does not dare make a quick advance.