Monday, 1 November

 Fourth day of the tenth lunar month, Kuiwei year

At noon I went to see Secretary of State Hull, and thanked him for his help. If I didn’t see him to convey my gratitude, people might think that after the success of signing the Big Four Declaration, I didn’t attend to him any longer. It was not good in terms of social etiquette. Also at the same time I could ask him other news too. Our conversation went as follows. 1) After I expressed my gratitude, he replied that he was always friendly towards China, and the Japanese repeatedly asked him not to over-interfere with their actions in China. Then any issue between Japan and the United States could be negotiable. Also the American army, navy and air force kept trying to stop him from making enemies with Japan, saying that American military preparations were not yet complete and therefore would be at a disadvantage. He said the reason he did not give in to Japan was because he wanted to uphold justice and he was friendly to China. But the Generalissimo might not completely understand all these things, perhaps believing too much in the words of people sending to China from United States, such as Willkie. So the way the Generalissimo handled diplomacy towards the United States was not satisfactory. He dispatched people to be in touch with the American army, or Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau, or even contact such an unimportant person like Currie to deal with the entire Sino-American diplomacy. These certainly would not yield any result, and Hull’s tone was one of dissatisfaction. I replied that China suffered much in the war.  It was needless to say we urgently needed help from friendly states, so if there was anything which could be of help to further American assistance to us, we would definitely try our best to make it so. We are a victim of circumstances and our government has real need, I knew that he was sophisticated so I hoped he could understand. He said he knew China’s difficulty and understood our situation well. I said the news that we successfully signed the Four Powers Declaration reached Chongqing and it happened that it was the day of the Generalissimo’s birthday. He was very heartened about this. He said this was even better and asked me to relay his greetings to the Generalissimo. 2) He said that since China took part in the Four Powers Declaration, its status has been elevated to the same as Britain’s, the United States and the Soviet Union, all leading global politics. This is very important for China’s prospects. He hoped that China realised its great responsibility and would work harder. I replied that the Generalissimo knew it extremely well, but I really hoped that the United States would continue to help China become a really big power, and after the war help us develop our industry, raise our productivity, knowledge and living standard. If it were not the case, China would be unable to fulfil the duty arising from the Declaration, and peace in the future will be just fantasy that we would be unable to materialise. He strongly agreed. 3) I asked him if there were any difficulties at the conference. He said all were resolved satisfactorily. As for the second war zone, Britain and the United States had told the Soviet Union their detailed plan and difficulties. He reckoned that although it was difficult to say the Soviet Union was completely satisfied, its attitude was quite good, and it didn’t try to embarrass Britain and the United States. 4) I asked if it had decided that Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin would have a conference. He said at this Moscow conference, all important issues had been satisfactorily resolved. Also Stalin was preoccupied with fighting, so the conference of the three of them would be delayed and they would wait for Stalin to suggest the time. But about this he asked me to keep it secret because this would affect the enemy side. 5) He also told me he had twice talked with Stalin. At the second meeting they talked for over two hours. Stalin was very concerned about the cooperation of the world and expressed his eager hope that the United States would no longer adopt its isolationist policy. This was exactly what Hull and his fellows thought and he was glad about it. He said that both Stalin and Molotov were friendly towards China and did not criticise China at all, and he reckoned that I should feel relieved. 6) I asked him after several talks with Stalin and Molotov and others, and what he thought about the future action of the Soviet Union towards Japan. He said he was certainly friendly to him, and he had told me what happened in the conference and those things that he even kept secret to his assistants (And those things that exceeded the limit that he should tell others.). But for this thing I promised to keep secret. As this was related to his morality and credit, he was sorry that he couldn’t tell me. I then answered that I understood and expressed my gratitude. But I could sense from his tone that he had detailed discussions with Stalin and Molotov (because he had told me that he would raise this question.) and should have substantial results, otherwise he wouldn’t express that he was glad for the two meetings with Stalin. But this was only my personal observation and I had no evidence. Also this trivial thing mattered much, I didn’t want to make a mistake so as to give inaccurate information to the Generalissimo. So I deleted this point in my telegram to him. 7) He also told me that Britain and the United States had publicised the signing of the Four Powers Declaration. He seemed to want me to follow suit.

In the morning, Harold King, the Reuters representative visited me. He said nobody expected China would take part in the Declaration, therefore he came especially to congratulate me and ask me what my feelings were, and if I had anything to say. I replied that any feelings from China should be expressed by the Generalissimo and Minister Song in Chongqing and asked for his understanding that it was inappropriate for me to make any comment here. He was satisfied with my answer. As for me, if what we did was merely for the benefit of the Party and the country, then I would feel very heartened. I didn’t want to claim any merit, because morally I should not take any glory out of this. I didn’t treasure such a thing. Therefore when I talked to Counsellors Liu and Chen and Attaché Hu, I told them that after this success we should forget about it and concentrat our efforts on trying to do other necessary things. We should not boast even a little bit about our achievements. Also, the more achievements you get, the more people will be jealous of you. Therefore, we have to be extremely careful and modest. Otherwise it will incur the wrath of others.

At 5.00 p.m., Foreign Minister Eden invited me to tea at the British Embassy. It was also the result of my request to visit him, because I didn’t want him to think I didn’t want to attend to him after signing the Declaration. The main content of the conversation was as follows. 1) I asked Ambassador Kerr about the matter that Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union would set up a consultant committee in London. Ambassador Kerr smiled and said that this was Eden’s wonderful achievement and it was better for him to relate the whole story. I asked Eden in turn, and he said that after Italy’s collapse, the Mediterranean Committee was organised in a hurry. Then he was aware that with regard to European politics there should be negotiations in advance in order to mitigate any misunderstanding. As he and Hull could not always travel to Moscow, they had no choice but to establish an organisation for negotiation. I asked him if it was called a consultant committee, and what would be its relation to the European administrative committee in the future. He answered that he hoped that the future European administrative committee would evolve from it. I detected from his tone that the European administrative committee would have great power in the future. The Canadian Minister Wilgress was also present, he asked about the participation of Canada in the consultant committee. Eden said the committee was exclusively for the three countries because they tried to avoid an expansion to such a scale that it would be difficult to manage. I asked whether Fighting France had a place on the Mediterranean Committee, as this time it is reorganised into the London three countries consultant committee and France is not included, I asked if France would have the possibility of joining and if the three countries would discuss matters with France or not. (Actually, I wanted to probe whether China could join it in the future). Eden smiled and replied that whether they would discuss with it or not depended on if they behaved properly. Based on what Eden said, then the committee would have great power with regard to European affairs. So I cabled the Generalissimo to instruct Ambassador Gu to pay attention to it. I also sent a telegram to Ambassador Gu. 2) With regard to the Polish problem, Eden said he had raised the issue, but the question was fraught with difficulty because the majority of people in Poland didn’t know their status. Minister Wilgress said the Polish Government had reorganised itself, it was hopeful it might re-establish a relationship (with the Soviet Union). Eden said he was afraid that the successor would not be as competent as the present one. I said the Polish Foreign Minister Romer seemed to be quite understanding. Eden said it was a pity he had no power. Minister Wilgress told me afterwards that Eden had raised the issue of Poland at the closing of the conference, but nobody seemed to be enthusiastic, so he did not drive the issue further. 3) I asked why he only mentioned Austria, Eden said it was for propaganda purposes. 4) I asked if the economic issue had also seemed important and if it was discussed at the conference. Eden said the United States originally intended to discuss this and had a proposal, but at the meeting, all participants thought that it was not the right timing. So it was better to forward them to experts first for their review, and there was no need to discuss it in the conference. 5) He said what the conference achieved was more than he anticipated. 6) I thanked him for his help, and he told me that Molotov was very good to China, and he hadn’t heard that he had any words of criticism against China. Probably this was like Hull’s idea that he didn’t want us to have any bad feelings towards the Soviet Union. This is a politician’s proper attitude. As a matter of fact, I have already cabled the Generalissimo and Minister Song about this

At 7.00 we dined together. At 8.00 we heard the broadcast of the Moscow Conference everywhere. I then told the people in the Embassy the whole story about signing the Four Powers Declaration. I also said that this was an important matter and I hadn’t dare tell them for reasons of security. I didn’t distrust them. When we were handling things we only strived for success and felt satisfied if it was beneficial to the Party and country. There was no need to strive for self-success. So if the matters were not relevant to one’s responsibility, it would be better not to know. They understood very well what I said and were very happy about it.