Saturday, 13 January

Chengyong told me about his financial situation.  He said that he only has two thousand dollars left. He lives in my house; he only receives 25,000 francs from Deng Bingkun per month, thus he has a shortfall of almost US$100.  He is unable to sustain himself, therefore he wants to rent the apartment of Secretary Wang in Paris with a certain Mr. Wang, which has four rooms, and two of them will occupy two rooms respectively. The rent is only US$450, including furniture, and its monthly rent is no more than 1,500 francs each, therefore the monthly domestic expenditure would be no more than twenty thousand francs, which he could afford. Therefore, he wants to move out by the last ten days of this month. Certainly, I could not stop him from doing so. Therefore, I discussed with Zhongxiong and Kitty the ways we could further cut our expenditure. Both of them agreed we should not sell the house immediately and we are willing to be frugal.

In the afternoon, I went for a walk with Kitty and Zhongxiong. We had dinner at a small restaurant in Faubourg Montmartre. Then we went to La Gaîté Lyrique to watch Colorado, which was quite good. We left early at half past eleven, as we needed to take the train and bus to return home, which takes forty-five minutes. But finally, we took a bus leaving Paris at half past twelve.

I received Huang Qiang’s letter and immediately forwarded it to Geng Chengzhi.

Walter Lippmann has advocated the US army withdrawing from Korea, then it would negotiate with the Chinese Communists. On one hand, the United States should reorganize the military hardware of Japan, and in two years’ time make its army, navy and air force reach the level of self-defense, and provide economic aid in a five-year plan. At the same time, it should recognize the CCP government and abandon Taiwan. But it demanded the independence of Korea and the CCP would not interfere into a Vietnamese civil war. He said that the method was better than condemning the Chinese Communists as aggressor. What he advocated has many contradictions, and what he hopes for are things that the CCP could not do. Walter Lippmann is very familiar with the conditions of various countries in Western Europe, but his knowledge regarding the Soviet Union and the Far East is superficial to an astonishing level. Or, I wonder if it is the case that he is too old and that his knowledge has not caught up with the times.