Monday, 5 June

Fine, sun, still cold

In the morning I studied Russian. Last week my teacher Mishina was ill so she could not come. Now it seems that my Russian is already a little bit rusty. As Mencius said to take one time off it will be ten times more difficult. It is really true.

Last month I only had seventeen lessons, so I paid 595 rubles as my tuition fee.

Military Attaché Guo came and said a certain American officer who came here recently told him that he came here via Britain. He estimated that probably there are only some twenty divisions in Britain, which is about 500,000 men. Most of the American army are fighting in the areas around Pacific. There are only nine divisions in Britain. So according to Military Attaché Guo, the army which the British and American armies have reserved for the so-called second war zone are no more than 1,000,000 men, of which the strength is quite weak. So this is the reason why the second war zone has been delayed. But he also told me that the head of the British delegation, Burrows, informed him that the second war zone would be open very soon.

Today I received a copy of the magazine War and Working Class, which was published on the 1 of this month. It published an article about our army’s defeat in Henan. The article’s criticism was that our country hasn’t tried its best to develop the country’s resources and use our man power and that businessmen invested in speculative businesses, but not in industry which is necessary for national defence and as a result there are several steel factories that have ceased operation or reduced production. It also said that the reason for the military defeat is due to tactical error. From the war’s onset generals have not been replaced, so there is a lack of new talent and no use of new war tactics. Old habits of feudalism remain within the army, and defeatist psychology, so they have led their army to surrender to the Japanese. There were twenty military leaders, such as Pang Bingxun (龐炳勳), whose best armies were stationed in the border areas of Shanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, which stirred civil war, and the troops of Hu Zongnan (胡宗南)[1] that did not take part in the war in Henan. From these one can understand that the Henan defeat was not incidental. The whole article spoke on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, and turned the truth upside down. From this we can see the Soviet attitude towards us. Our authority should be prudent in handling it and should strive, because it will not yield good results if we depend on others. Also the Soviet Union recently showed a movie on Mongolia, which clearly indicated that Mongolian armaments were aided by the Soviet Union, and were enough to defend against foreign invasions. If it is attacked, the Soviet Union will certainly help. The Soviet attitude towards Outer Mongolia is apparent, which is deeply worrying.

Yesterday the Allied Army occupied Rome. The German army has retreated from the North. This is a major advancement for the Allied army.

Last night I heard that the American Ambassador will meet the American Vice- President Henry Wallace. Therefore this morning I sent Mr. Shaozhou to see the American Counsellor to discuss whether we can get together.

[1] Hu Zongnan (1896-1962) was a Nationalist General who was close to Chiang Kaishek.