Monday, 25 October

The Swedish Minister visited me in the afternoon. He said as follows.1) He had also talked to Eden, and found that he was quite optimistic about the conference’s prospect. 2) Finland had missed a good opportunity this spring, now it is very difficult to get the Soviet’s forgiveness, and Britain and the United States also found that it is difficult for them to talk to the Soviet Union on its behalf. We can only wait until it learns from its own mistakes and asks for peace with the Soviet Union.3) According to the Swedish Ambassador to Germany’s report, 1) The German army is very discontented with Hitler, and this time the retreat from East Europe was completely the idea of the military section. 2) The military and the public have lost faith in Hitler. The army wanted to bring Hitler down and replace him with (name unclear). But because of the urgency of military affairs, it wasn’t carried out. 3) The allied air force continued to bombard Germany, and it had been a very bad influence. Once, during the Hamburg bombardment, 16,000 people were killed. More than 800,000 homeless people slept on the street and waited for evacuation. After these sufferings the Germans hated the Nazis in the extreme. Hitler and Göring didn’t dare go outside. The Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, once went to the bombing area to console the refugees, but was surrounded by several thousand people wanting to beat him. Only when soldiers put on false air raid sirens did the crowds disperse. Therefore, the Swedish military section first reckoned that bombardment would be unable to defeat Germany, but after receiving this report, they decided to change their original observation. I immediately reported to the Generalissimo and Minister Song.