Monday, 6 November

Fine, sun

I sent a telegram to Chief of the General Staff He Yingqin, asking for permission for Military Attachés Guo’s visit to Western Europe. I did not have much hope on it. It was only that Military Attachés Guo wanted to go there soon therefore what I could do was to send the telegram.

Tomorrow is Soviet National Day. At 8.00 p.m. Stalin made a broadcast. It said that it was so easy for Japan to attack Pearl Harbor and occupy Hong Kong and Singapore, which were just like Germany taking Ukraine. This were because the aggressive countries had prepared for many years and the peace-loving countries had made no preparation. But hereafter peace-loving countries would not repeat such a mistake. Stalin openly referred to Japan as an aggressive country. It was the first time and worth us paying attention to it.

Shaozhou told me that tonight Qin Diqing and his wife wrangled. When Diqing was out, his wife wanted to commit suicide, using a knife to cut the blood vessels on her hand. Luckily the cut was not too deep and did not reach blood vessels. In a big fright her servant went to Shaozhou and his wife for help. Now Diqing’s wife is fine. According to Shaozhou, Diqing’s wife is very quick-tempered. She always shouted at him day and night, and even beat him. Diqing resisted negatively and this made her even angrier. Their relations have been really very bad. Probably Diqing was a scholar, but his wife lived extravagantly before she was married to him. Her life style was like the modern girls in Shanghai and Peiping. After marrying Diqing she found that he was not good company. In (spoken) Russian, she looked down on her husband as he was not as proficient as her. It was rumored that she had another lover in Moscow. Therefore she felt that her husband should be more accommodating with her as compensation for her sacrifice. But she did not know that to be a couple if there is no mutual respect and only one side tries to accommodate the relationship would not last long. Diqing has already suffered for resisting negatively. I asked Shaozhou and his wife to talk more with Qin and try to give him psychological support. This would help prevent Qin from leaving the office right after work and returning home too early. If he and his wife spend too much time together in a small room, quarrels would be more frequent. Shaozhou and his wife are very good, if they could keep giving Qin support it would be of great assistance to Diqing.