Monday, 1 September
At 7.00 a.m. I was at the Nationalist Government’s Memorial Week service. Although the Grand Hall was destroyed by the bombardment, we still held the Memorial Week at the site of the Grand Hall. The Generalissimo and Chairman Lin Sen were both present. Deputy President H.H. Kung reported the diplomatic situation and China’s latest administrative situation, which was quite good. At 8.00 I returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Minister Guo Taiji also came. We had the monthly meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Memorial Week.
At 11.30 Minister Guo came to my room for the Deputy Minister’s discussion:
1) Li Shishun (劉師舜) was chosen as the candidate for the Minister to Canada. I said it was better for him to ask the Generalissimo to decide so as to avoid other people making a recommendation, otherwise it will be hard to amend the mistake. He agreed to tell the Generalissimo and said he had talked to him and he would choose hardworking personnel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be envoys. The Generalissimo agreed with this principle.
2) Deputy Minister Zeng Rongfu (曾溶甫) would be sent to be the representative in Rangoon by the Executive Yuan, and he would be treated as an ambassador. Qian Tai would be the Administrative Deputy Minister. I said he should immediately discuss and confirm with the Generalissimo so that during the meeting of the Executive Yuan he could raise the issue. He said he would go to Huangshan to see the Generalissimo and it could be decided.
3) Would appoint Guo Pinjia (郭品佳), Yu Ming and Xu Daolin (徐道鄰)[1] as counsellors, and appoint Guan Jifu (關吉甫), Feng Ruofei and Ding Zhaoji, whom were originally counsellors, now as consultants. I also agreed but I advocated that he should reassure three of them in person and make them feel relieved that their titles had changed to consultants and we were not expelling them. He agreed.
4) He also said that Hang Liwu(杭立武)[2] reported after he had returned from Hong Kong that the Hong Kong Government did not welcome Phillip Tyau (刁作謙).[3] Probably it was because several months ago when Tyau was in Singapore dealing with party affairs, he had the wrong attitude. He said that Singapore was a dependent territory of China. I said Tyau was really wrong as Wang Chonghui told me that the result of that case was bad and it was completely due to Wu Tiecheng’s attitude and how he had mishandled the affair. Before going to Singapore, Wu Tiecheng requested Singapore expel three Singaporeans, saying they were members of the CPP. When the British Ambassador went to Singapore, the Singapore Governor blamed him in a most unfriendly tone saying that two people among these three were known in all Singapore as anti-CCP elements. It happened that they also had criticisms regarding the Kuomintang. The Governor said that the Chinese Government should not assert that those who criticised it were Communist Party members and demand others expel them as it was against the British concept of “fair play”. He also told the British Ambassador, “don’t be a cat’s paw of the Chinese Government”. So the British Ambassador did not mention this matter again. When Tyau went to deal with the case, the British side deemed him as the man of Wu Tiecheng, so there had to be no verdict. Probably this time, Hong Kong also took Tyau as Wu Tiecheng’s man, from whom he must accept direction and come under the order of the Hong Kong-Macao General Branch at Hong Kong, which the Hong Kong Government could not cope with easily. As the Hong Kong Government indicated, we should not do it forcefully. Guo Taiji intended to send Hang Liwu and I said that was quite good. But I was afraid that it would be good for the Hong Kong Government to deal with him while Gao Tingzi’s (高廷梓) Hong Kong-Macao General Branch would not. As for Wen Yuanning, the Generalissimo said that he was afraid that he was not well qualified. To find someone who had the appropriate background was no easy task.
At noon, there was an A.R.A. and it was over by three o’clock. Enemy planes did not enter the city.
[1] Xu Daolin(1906-1973) was a legal expert who received his education in Germany. He was the son of Xu Shuzheng(徐樹錚,1880-1925).
[2] Hang Liwu(1903-1991) was a politician and teacher of the KMT Government,
[3] Phillip Tyau (1880-1974) was a Hakkanese from Guangdong. He was a legal expert and diplomat who had studied at St John’s and Cambridge Universities.