Friday, 9 December

Dull, mild

Kitty told me that Jeannie wanted Zhongxiong to move to London. Kitty had suggested two methods. 1) I return the money from selling the house. She was willing to hand the Hong Kong Restaurant to Zhongxiong for management and I would supervise the accounting. The monthly profit would be divided into three equally as planned by me. 2) Zhongxiong would return to London to carry on his studies. In the coming two years one third of the income and net profit would be remitted to him by us. I heard that Zhongxiong would come to London with Ye on the day after tomorrow, so that probably Zhongxiong would take the latter suggestion of Kitty. I certainly had nothing to say. What I could do was to raise the separation agreement with Kitty when I return the money from selling the house to her, then I could enjoy relative peace of mind.

[Private matter; one paragraph not available online]

In the afternoon, Chen Jingchen visited me. I told him what Xie Ranzhi had discussed with me. I also told Chen that, originally, I intended to return to Taipei and gave advice to Chiang Kai-shek. It was because, as I observed the wider trends of international relations, the period of using force has long elapsed. Chiang’s government should be awakened from their dreams of hoping for a world war. As for the army which is now maintained by Taiwan, the ammunitions have been supplied by the United States, and they are so obsolete that they cannot compare with those supplied by the Soviet Union to the Chinese communists in terms of quality. The quality is as such, but the quantity is even worse. Fighting is certainly impossible, and if there was warfare, there would be absolutely no hope of victory. Also, the situation that the United States and the Soviet Union divide world power has become a conclusion. Even these two big powers know that they could not embark upon a war. Other weak puppet states could say nothing. But given the manpower and material capability of Taiwan, it absolutely cannot maintain an army with obsolete weapons, nor engage in modern warfare without assistance from the United States. Taiwan has had to be very humble and suffer much humiliation, but what it has received has been useless materials. Its people are now suffering from starvation, economically speaking it is depending on others. There are absolutely no prospects at all. This is just like walking on a dead-end road. Therefore, the only method is to admit the fact, indicate to the United States that Taiwan is also clear that it is unable to take military action against the mainland. There is no way to maintain such a big army, so the whole army should be dismantled.  Then Taiwan should ask the United States to guarantee and protect, and halt against invasion from the Chinese communists. It should also demand that the United States keep giving the funding for military and financial assistance in the coming certain years, so that industrial development could continue. If all this could be achieved, Taiwan would become the most prosperous Switzerland in the Far East after some ten years. Such economic and political struggle must easily yield results. As for the part of the Kuomintang, that it could not implement national socialism (the Three Principles of the People), it could implement them now in Taiwan.

This said, Taiwan would no doubt be unable to accept such an ideology. The close associates of Chiang Kai-shek would claim that I had other designs, which would only cause meaningless sacrifice. Chen Jingchen also strongly agreed and advised me not to act. He said it would put me in danger.

Ye Gongchao went to Sun Moon Lake with the American Ambassador, urging Chiang he should not insist on using veto power, but Chiang did not agree. This is enough to prove that this is the idea of Chiang Kai-shek, with which Gongchao might not agree.

Walter Lippmann published an article, saying that the Soviet Union had adopted the Marshall Plan, Point Four, and Mutual Aid Programs of the American side.  He said that internally, the United States is unwilling to advocate any increase in its financial burden before the presidential election. Therefore, the United States has given out self-deceiving public opinion, saying the Soviet Union has no capability to provide massive aid. As a matter of fact, says the author, the Soviet political system certainly has such a capability. Also, the Soviet Union could absorb the rice and cotton produced by backward countries. At the same time, regarding American assistance, it is required that the United States should build up an anti-communism army, while the Soviet Union is, on the contrary, advocating the withdrawal of an army. Therefore, the author thinks that in the future the majority of such countries must adopt a neutral policy, as such a stance would be unavoidable. The American side should change its current policy, and continue massive assistance.

I thought the article was quite logical.