Monday, 16 August
At 5.00 p.m. I visited Ambassador Kerr. He said as follows. 1) He said that the British-Soviet relationship was not as bad as people thought. For the last few months although there had been highs and lows, it has recently been quite good. Since the Soviet casualties are so high, they are certainly unhappy that the second war zone was not yet been opened. Therefore, if we could land in France soon, or we could have large scale military action, this type of misunderstanding would be diminished. But if the second war zone is not opened for a long time the future will definitely be very worrying. 2) He believed that the second war zone would be opened soon. 3) The recent meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill was to discuss the problems regarding Japan in the Pacific, but had nothing to do with the second war zone. 4) Britain already has over 2 million troops in India and should be able to start the operation against the Japanese. 5) Important people in the Soviet Union repeatedly told him that the Soviet Union hated Japan very much, so there was no way of compromising with Japan. 6) When he was in China, he often talked with the Generalissimo about the world situation and both agreed that it was necessary that Britain, the United States, China and the Soviet Union should cooperate closely, otherwise world peace could not be maintained. Since he arrived here he has tried his best in this direction, he is still very hopeful now and the Soviet side has begun to understand. But if there was no hope, he would leave. 7) The transfer of Maisky to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a good idea because the Soviet Union needed somebody who knew the situation with Britain well, and Molotov told him that the National Committee for a Free Germany was only for propaganda. 8) He thought that dividing with the Communists was not very appropriate and also the new 4th army incident had a very bad influence on Britain and the United States. 9) Mr. Shao Lizi was too pessimistic. 9) He was worried about China’s economic problems.
At noon, the newly appointed American Minister Max Hamilton came to visit me and he has been my friend for 20 years since when we were in Guangzhou. Afterwards he went back to Washington to become the Vice Minister of the Far East Department and later Minister. He was quite nice to the Soviet Union and he can still speak Chinese.