Friday, 3 November

Dull

This British broadcast this morning said Churchill and Eden would go to Paris on an invitation from De Gaulle and Bidault. At the same time the French Communist Party made a declaration, formally protesting an order from De Gaulle disbanding the volunteer army. The misunderstanding between Britain and the Soviet Union seems to be deteriorating. The British side thought that the Soviet side did not accommodate even slightly on Poland and the Balkan issues, so Britain secretly linked up with other countries in order to cope with the Soviet Union. This type of tendency is not good for future world peace. The broadcast also said that The Times editorial this morning strongly criticised the military setbacks in China. From this one can see that the Sino-British relationship is bad but it also said that Donald Nelson would visit China again soon, so the Sino-American relationship is not hopeless.

Minister Song made a speech today this morning. He said that 1) the recall of Stilwell was completely on personal grounds and was nothing to do with politics. 2) The American Government stated repeatedly that the Chinese Communist Party issue was our internal problem and they would not interfere. 3) The resignation of American Ambassador Gauss was that he haad worked on a post with too much workload for many years so he wanted to retire.

The Angola broadcast said during a press conference this morning that the American Vice-Secretary of State, Stettinius was asked if it was true that it was rumoured that the British and America Governments told the Iranian Government that they agreed with its decision to negotiate with foreign countries with regard to the rights of coal,oil and other interests after the war. Stettinius replied that the United States was certainly happy for this type of issue to be solved after the end of war. If this was the case then conflicts would gradually arise between the Soviet Union and the United States. The other evidence was that the Soviet Union refused to dispatch representatives to attend the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation on the pretext that Switzerland, Portugal and Spain also sent representatives. On doing it the Soviet Union wanted to show, firstly, its attitude towards the countries, and secondly, his attitude towards the United States. I was afraid that the United States would gradually be unable to tolerate the recent attitude the Soviet Union has adopted. The United States would then show unfriendliness towards the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union cannot be tolerant either, the future will be unimaginable.

The British broadcast American comments on the recall of Stilwell, saying that the Chinese people have fought the War of Resistance for seven years, their spirit is certainly respectable, but the Central Government hasn’t tried its best, the leaders in-charge have been selfish and the army corrupted. The Government was unable to carry out reform, unify the strength of the whole country, or reform the politics so as to transform China into a democratic state. This time Roosevelt reluctantly accepted the request from Chiang to recall the highest General in the United States as an extreme concession to Chiang. At the moment the United States would not change its policy of helping China, but in the future it had to see how Chiang behaved, if there were thorough reforms, if politics could be changed to be democratic, if the Chinese army could be reformed, and if the Government could cooperate with different parties. With regard to the distribution of aid materials to China, though the Head was changed, the method temporarily remained the same. From this we can see recent American attitudes towards us. But I did not know if our Central Government knows the international condition and will try its best to improve so as to make the genuine friends of China happy. Also the Central Broadcast said that Mr. H.H. Kung has gone to Washington. Probably he had a very special mission.