29

Friday, 29 September

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Friday, 29 September

Fine

 

At 11.00 I visited Canadian Minister Wilgress. He told me as follows:

1) In the Quebec Conference it touched on European issues. (a) With regard to the occupation of Germany, probably the American side proposed not to divide Germany into sections and the governance of all Germany by one military leader. But Britain and the Soviet Union were against this suggestion. Now it has been decided that Germany will be divided into sections for governance. But as for the division of sections between the three countries, or whether they would be governed by the military authority, or whether each country would dispatch its own administrator, as well as France fighting hard to join the governance of the French-German border, all these issues were unable to be decided in the European Advisory Commission. (b) With regard to the Italian issue. The terms for Italy’s truce are quite harsh, and the power of the Italian Government insignificant. The ordinance that Allies were banned to trade with merchants of the enemy was still in force. So Italians are living hard. When the Allied force landed in Italy, they over-emphasised that they would provide salvation to the Italians, therefore the Italians are greatly disturbed now and they have became radical. Many of them have joined the Communist Party. So the British and American sides have no choice but to find ways to solve it. They immediately changed their treatment towards the Italian Government, gave it more real power and provided more subsidy, as well as abolishing the earlier law. With regard to the Pacific War, after Philips’s report regarding India was made public (It said Britain would not fight hard in the war against Japan.), the British were very angry. Therefore, Churchill pushed Roosevelt hard into allowing the British navy and air force to fight against Japan, because the Americans proposed that the British navy and air force need not join. It only demanded Britain send more British-Indian infantry.

2) As for the terms for the Bulgarian truce, since the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria, originally the Soviet side wanted to move the negotiations from Cairo to Moscow, but Britain did not want to give up easily on the Bulgarian issue as it is related to Greece. Therefore it still did not agree with the Soviet proposal. At the moment, the negotiation is handled by the European Advisory Commission. Perhaps in the future the formal signing might take place in Turkey.

3) There are quite a few British troops in the Near East. He heard that they are starting to be transferred to the Far East to fight.

4) Recently, the British and American armies landed in Yugoslavia and Albania seemed to have some political consideration because they did not want the Red Army to completely occupy Yugoslavia and Greece.

5) Churchill’s normal policy was that he still advocated attacking Germany in a scattered manner, and in particular to fight from the Balkans. Until the Cairo Conference Churchill still insisted on this and he had persistent disagreements with Roosevelt, therefore, at the Tehran Conference it was proposed to allow Stalin to make the final decision. This gave Stalin the best impression of Britain and the United States. From this time onwards Stalin no long suspected that Britain and the United States were grouping together to oppose the Soviet Union.

6) The conference in Dumbarton Oaks with regard to the world security organisation has not produced any result yet. Because although the executive council was organised by seven people nominated by the Four Powers (or included France) and other countries, the resolution would be passed by a two third majority. But in this two third majority, the Four Powers should be in consensus. It means the Four Powers should be included. What was unable to be solved was that if one of the four powers invaded others, whether it would still have voting power or not. In the British and American proposals they said it should have such power, otherwise the Four Powers could use aggression against others, which would be unreasonable. But the Soviet side insisted on this veto. Therefore, Churchill said such an issue could not be settled until Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met with each other.

 

Wilgress asked me if the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan after the defeat of Germany. China would have the fear that the Soviet Union had ambitions on the four Eastern provinces. I replied that according to my personal observation the Soviet diplomatic policy at the moment was not to arouse any fear towards it in the world. So regarding the four Eastern provinces the Soviet Union would not place any demand. Also the troops in Xinjiang have evacuated, this further proves that what I said about the Soviet Union, that it did not have territorial ambition, was right. Probably after the war the Soviet Union wants to have a peaceful time to dedicate its energy to construction. It would be an unwise move to plant the seeds of war. Wilgress also thought the same.

 

Military Attaché Guo Dequan came to talk to me, saying that he has cabled the Military Department to resign. He said that before the amendment of the regulation regarding military attaché his job duty was not clearly delineated so he was unable to implement his duty. His telegram was asking for approval for recuperation in Cairo for six months, and he would go to the battlefields in Europe to do investigation and write reports. He is very hard-working here but it is difficult to do things in the Soviet Union. But it seemed to be that the Military Department did not understand, always asking him to do things which he was unable to handle. So he was put in a difficult situation. I tried my best to ask him to stay. He was good to me and I worked well with him. If his resignation is approved it will be a great pity.

 

Yesterday I received a telegram from Vice-President Kung in the United States. It stated that Sino-Soviet relations, since our party ascended to power, have long been in great harmony. Earlier, because of the German Incident, there were some misunderstandings. The Chairman has repeatedly instructed various department Heads, asking them to improve the situation and express friendliness. Now the Xinjiang incident has been settled. With regard to the issue of the Chinese Communist Party, the Soviet side has stated many times that it is our internal political affair, which has no connection with its diplomacy. So it seems that there will be no obstacle for friendship. During the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, he has talked to the chief representative with regard to Soviet assistance in the past and expressed our sincere gratitude. He told the representative that China and the Soviet Union are in friendly terms and he hoped that the friendship could go further. The representative also replied positively. He heard that Churchill has gone to Moscow. He said that Britain might have a misunderstanding with our country because of the negotiation in India. With regard to the affair between Britain and India we would absolutely not interfere. In the past I heard Britain disagreed with our status in the Four Powers, but hopefully having received the sympathy and patronage of both Roosevelt and Stalin, the matter was settled. The meeting between Churchill and Stalin this time must certainly touch on issues relating to China. He wanted to know the Soviet attitude towards China, as well as what happened with the meeting between Churchill and Stalin. He hoped I would follow closely the meeting and send a telegram to him to report.

From H.H. Kung, 22 September: What Kung said about the disagreement of Britain with regard to our status in the Four Powers I was not sure where he got this idea. From the conversation with Eden when I was at the Moscow Conference, and Hull told me that Eden ardently supported China joining during the meeting, I thought what Kung said was against the facts. Perhaps the reports other Embassies received were wrong. With regard to bad relations between China and the Soviet Union, Ling Jidong (凌濟東) and his Chinese Tea Company were related to it. Mr. Kung is a very honest person and he treats others sincerely. Therefore I immediately sent a telegram to him. It was as follows: The Chinese Embassy, Washington. Please relay the message to Vice-President Kung. SECRET. I received your cable on 27 September. The world war is nearing its last stages, and this is also the most important moment for the betterment of our country’s destiny. In the future when we turn from weak to strong, on the one hand because our country is striving and on the other hand we have to depend on the goodwill and assistance from Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. During the past few years Sino-Soviet relations have been bad, and mentioned in your telegram, the Xinjiang issue has been one of the main reasons. Hopefully the Central Government has embraced the importance of friendliness and is trying its best to improve the situation. It is enough to prove that, as the highest official in the said province has been changed. The Soviet side has expressed to us that if the basic intention of the change was to rectify the Sino-Soviet relations they would certainly find this satisfactory. But still they had to see if the newly-appointed official has any substantial change or not. But I expect Sino-Soviet relations will improve because of this. The British and American Ambassadors keep telling me that the Soviet way of doing things is quite different to the other countries in that they are most concerned about even the tiniest matters. Therefore Britain and the United States will always accommodate these and they urged me to take the same attitude. With regard to the exchange of products between China and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union has always expressed that China could not fulfill a contract and that prices of several products were so expensive. I am not sure we could try to accommodate within our limits. Also if there is misunderstanding between China and Britain, we should try to mend this as soon as possible. During the Moscow Conference, I talked to Eden several times. His attitude was most positive towards us, and he supported us in the Four Powers Declaration. With regard to the rumour that Churchill came to Moscow we haven’t heard of it. If this happens in future, I will do my best to find out what is happening accordingly. Nelson has returned to the United States. When he was in Moscow I talked to him many times. As for his reception in Chongqing as well as the result of the post-war organisation conference please inform me at your convenience. Your official, Fu Bingchang. 29 September.

 

From 4.00 to 6.00 p.m. I studied Russian.

 

In the evening I went to the Grand Theatre to watch the ballet Sleeping Beauty. The main female character, C.M. Messerer, played the Princess. Her dancing was quite good. Ten years ago she was the best ballerina in Moscow. Now though she is over 30, she still looked fine and her dance was wonderful. In the second and the fourth act she played the youthful dancer. It was very good. The sleeping dance in the third act was extremely difficult. The male main character V.D. Golubin has also been a famous star for a long time. He has been Semeanova’s husband and now he is over 50 but he looked like someone 30 years old. His dancing was very good. Also V.V. Lapuhina performed the blue bird dance admirably, as well as V.P. Vasileva who played the white cat. The setting was fine too.