Monday, 24 January
Warm and sunny, 27℉; melting snow on roads
Counsellor Liu said last night he asked Attaché Hu to call Alexander Werth. He told Hu that there was no foundation in the departure. It was the Germans who created the rumour.
At 5.00 in the afternoon the Greek Ambassador, Politis, visited me. According to him, the article about Greece in the War and the Working Class magazine was written by Vlahov, the Bulgarian Comintern representative. As a Bulgarian, he is strongly anti-Greece. Ambassador Politis personally did not believe that the Soviet Union has any bad intentions regarding this matter. He said the week before last he saw Molotov. With regard to replying to the call from the Greek Prime Minister that the various resistant elements in the country should unite together to fight against Germany, Molotov’s attitude was very positive. He then said that he and others knew very little about Greek matters, and there was no Communist party in Greece to use, and recently the two factions have agreed to cooperate. Politis also said that he heard from the Turkish Ambassador this afternoon that recently Finland has been anxious to make peace and eager to ask the United States to mediate. Now American Ambassador Harriman is working on this. Finland doesn’t want to surrender unconditionally, and the Soviet Union has scored a victory after launching an offensive attack on the North route, therefore it (the Soviet Union) is a bit cool about this. So Ambassador Harriman’s task is not an easy one.
Military Attaché Guo reported that The President of the British Military Delegation, General Martel, sent a letter to the Soviet Chief-of-Staff three days ago. He said he has been here for three years and because he cannot go to the Front to inspect, as a result he knows nothing about how the Soviet army fights in the war. He will return to Britain soon with nothing to report, he hopes that the Soviet Union can help so he can go to the Front line. His dissatisfaction was evident from his wordings. He has been close to the Soviet Union, but his behaviour this time is beyond expectation.
In the evening, Counsellor Liu and his wife invited the American Ambassador Harriman and his daughter, Canadian Minister Wilgress and his wife to dinner at the Embassy. Minister Wilgress said after the publication of the news on the unilateral secret peace talk between Britain and Germany in Pravda, someone from the Soviet side told him that with regard to this coverage, Stalin and Molotov did not know beforehand. Also, the Soviet Government has dispatched its Ambassador to Britain to visit and thank Eden for mediating in the Soviet-Polish Incident. Perhaps the Soviet Union knew that this was too unfair to Britain, and that world public opinion would be antagonistic towards it, so the Soviet Union has tried to remedy this. A gentleman’s mistake is like the eclipse of the sun and moon. It is magnificent that a gentleman is willing to admit his fault and correct it. This will make other people respect him more. I was quite delighted on learning this.
Wang Huifang (王蕙芳)[1] sent me a telegram from Britain, saying he had arrived there. He asked me to relay his enquiry to Zhou Huaizhang (周懷璋)[2] for news of Hung Enci (黃恩賜). I immediately replied that I was unable to cable Hong Kong, and asked him to try to contact Zhou Miaokun (周妙坤)[3]
Today was New Year’s Eve of the Kuiwei Year. I remembered that thirty-three years ago my father died on the 25 of the twelfth month. New Year’s Eve is a great day of celebration, but I encountered such bereavement and was deeply saddened. So every year during New Year’s Eve, when I hear the sound of firecrackers, then the sad scene of my father’s death comes back to me vividly. Added to this is the death of my mother this year, the sadness is hard to describe. I felt so bad I could not continue to write (my diary).
[1] Wang Huifang (1891-1954) was an actor with the Peking opera.
[2] A Hong Kong doctor.
[3] Zhou Huaizhang’s daughter.