Monday, 3 April

Heavy snow, quite cold

Attaché Hu reported that Foreign Minister Molotov summoned the Soviet correspondents of various countries by phone last night to arrive at his place at 10.15. He declared, on behalf of the Soviet Government that the Red Army will cross Prut River, and enter into Romania to chase enemies, but has no intention of scrambling any land or changing its social system. The main purpose for the Red Army in entering Romanian territory is totally due to military need. Someone asked if the Soviet Government had been in touch with the Romanian Government. Molotov answered that it hadn’t but the Soviet Government had contacted the British and American governments and they agreed. The representative of Reuters, Harold King, asked Molotov if he could explain the issue with regard to the new Mongolian border. Molotov answered that it was irrelevant to the Romanian issue, so he could not answer.

I received a telegram from the Ministry of Intelligence (The telegram was sent from Lisbon on 1 April.), saying that when Deputy Minister Wu Guozhen was at the foreign reporters’ press conference, someone asked him about the skirmish in the Xinjiang-Mongolia border. He answered that he had no statement to make. Then the declaration by the Soviet Union yesterday was perhaps that it was afraid that we would say something so it did it in advance. If this is the case, then the problem is not as serious as we first thought. Nevertheless, it is still not a good one, and my work here will be greatly affected. I can only do what Lin Sen instructed me and deal with the matter diligently and not ask for achievement and as Dai Jitao instructed me, to imitate Zeng Jize

In the evening, I invited the formal French Air Force Minister Pierre Cot and Garreau. We had a long talk after dinner. They said as follows: 1) With regard to the future of France, they said the Communist Party will take up 30%, Socialists 25%, Centre 20%, Conservative 10%. The power gradually resting on the Communists, because there are three sorts of excuses for anti-Communists. 1) They are not patriotic. 2) they publicly own land and abolish private enterprises and capital. 3) They are directed by foreign countries. But in the resistance war against Germany this time, because Germany particularly hates the Communist Party, so the Communists are strongest in resisting Germany and made up the most of the sacrifice. So no one could say they were not patriotic. Recently the Communist Party has changed its plan, declaring that every country has its own historical and social background so it is not against private land ownership and small capitalists. At the same time,  it abolished the Comintern, and sometimes the French Communist Party criticised the Comintern, so we cannot say it is directed by foreign countries. Therefore, French politics in the future will be led by the Communist Party and form a coalition government. 2) The Italian Communists are over 50%. 3) The Tito-styled Yugoslavian Government (with the Communist Party as the centre and uniting various parties in forming the government) would influence various states in Europe, and they are afraid that Germany will have such a tendency in the future. 4) The United States is still not cooperating with De Gaulle. It not only doesn’t recognise its government, it also hasn’t decided whether De Gaulle‘s army will join the attack on France or not. But De Gaulle deeply understands Roosevelt’s difficulty, and has agreed that he will transfer the matter to Eisenhower to decide. This is a change from the original agreement which was beneficial to France.