Friday, 27 August

In the afternoon, I visited the Swedish Minister. He said as follows. 1) Satō was still unhappy. The United States has sold more and more ships to the Soviet Union recently. The Japanese navy inspected the ships. This inspection was what the British navy imposed on neutral countries and although neutral countries might protest, it was to no avail. So this inspection was not started by Japan. But the Soviet side strongly protested against it, and Satō felt this was not easy to deal with. The day before yesterday Satō went to see Molotov about this issue, and it seemed that Satō was not in a good mood. 2) Japan has bought a lot of ball bearings from Sweden for their machines. After the start of the war the Soviet Union stopped them passing through their territory. Japan kept negotiating with the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union did not approve. However, the Soviet side also wanted to buy rubber and tin from Japan, and so far there has been no result. 3) He talked to the British and American Ambassadors and his impression was that the British-American relationships with the Soviets are worrying. The American Ambassador reckoned the Soviet side didn’t understand the American situation and they were very cold towards the United States and didn’t want to cooperate wholeheartedly. The Soviet side listened to the Czechoslovakian Ambassador, who is very close to the Soviet Union, saying that Britain and the United States have broken their promises many times not to open the second war zone and the Soviet Union is dissatisfied. Because the United States and Britain promised Molotov that the second war zone would be opened last year and Churchill came to the Soviet Union to say that it should be delayed a little bit. After Churchill and Roosevelt met in North Africa, they promised that it would be opened after nine months but now it has still not been done. No wonder the Soviet Union is displeased. 4) The Military Attaché from Sweden to Germany reported that on the German side, although they didn’t have the same strong belief they would score victory as before, and many of them are inclined to peace talks, they still have confidence that they can maintain internal stability. So they still supported their government and no internal upheaval would happen. The British and American bombardment wouldn’t scare the Germans, but only served to increase German hatred towards Britain. As to the machines in the German industrial area, most of them could be moved, and their production power has not suffered much. The German scholars are still trying to develop new machines, and there is no shortage of food. The Germans believe they can hold out for two years. 5) Within Finland there are signs that they are extremely sick of the war, but their leaders have not yet decided to make peace. Ambassador Kerr thought that if they didn’t decide quickly, the Soviet Union would not allow it. He felt sorry for Finland.