Friday, 7 March

Rain

At half past ten we had breakfast tea at the coffee shop. After that we went to various shops to buy some trivial items. We first went to Galleries Lafayette, La Samaritaine, and others. We had supper at Shanglong at half past six, and by nine we returned to the hotel.

I received a phonecall from Minister Duan Guanhai. He said that the visas to Britain are ready and I can pick them up tomorrow.

The Soviet People’s Commissar for Finance, Arseny G. Zverev, has raised the budget in the Central Joint Conference. The budget for national defense this year is 113,800,000,000 roubles, which is an increase of twenty per cent as compared with last year. It is worthy to pay attention.

Recently, a part of a diary belonging to the former American Military Attaché stationed at the Soviet Union, Major General Robert W. Grow, (The Division Commander who scored a great merit in the Normandy landing in the Second European War) has been sneakily photographed by Soviet spies. In the past few days, the images have been published in the newspapers of Eastern Germany. The diary said that war between the United States and the Soviet Union was unavoidable. If this was the case, Grow thought that it would be good to be as early as possible. He thought that it would be best to happen in 1951. The Soviet side deems this as good material for propaganda. The American Military Department had to admit this was indeed the case.

The French cabinet has passed with 324 votes against 206 that the economic expert, Antoine Pinay, would be responsible for organizing the cabinet. Unexpectedly, twenty-seven people from the faction of Charles de Gaulle had violated the orders of the Party in that they voted to agree.