Friday, 29 October

At 11.00 a.m. I went to see Secretary of State Hull, and I showed him my letters to the three foreign ministers. He then negotiated with the American Ambassador Harriman and the legal advisor Green Hackworth to discuss the wordings for my plenipotentiary to sign. He said he did not want to give an excuse for Molotov for making unnecessary argument, so the wordings should avoid the meaning that I would take part in the conference. Therefore, he felt we should revise as follows, “You are hereby appointed special plenipotentiary with full power to sign on behalf of China the Four Nation Declaration concluded at the Moscow Conference.” When we came to the last sentence I asked if it was fine to add “Moscow Conference”, Mr. Hull said it did not matter. Because I didn’t attend the conference, and this conference was under his direction, therefore it was better for him to manage all the wording. This would make him feel that this was his idea and he would have no choice but to take full responsibility. So I didn’t insist on the revision of wordings. The revised letters were sent immediately this afternoon.