Saturday, 17 April

The Australian Counsellor Officer invited us to a banquet. I and the American Ambassador Admiral Standley, Swedish Minister V. Assarson, and Canadian Minister L.D. Wilgress were at the same table. We had a long talk after dinner. Admiral Standley reckoned that 1) Stalin has shown determination and confidence about the war throughout, but he didn’t underestimate the enemy. 2) Stalin was at first very opposed to the battle zone in North Africa. When Churchill came to the Soviet Union to talk about opening another war zone, Stalin insisted that it should be opened in France, saying that British intelligence with regard to the German army in France had overestimated and was completely inaccurate. Therefore, at the end when they gave Churchill a reception at the Kremlin, Molotov was the host, the gesture of raising a glass to celebrate was done by him. But Stalin suddenly stood up, raised his glass and said that the Soviet Union and Britain differed on whether the second war zone could start in the West coast of France or not, but history proved that because of inaccuracy of intelligence, Britain suffered setbacks for those battles but they could score success. For example in World War I, the British navy invaded Gibraltar (Molotov immediately corrected it as “Dardanelles”). If intelligence was correct, the British navy would not have been defeated. The British navy in this battle was directly responsible to Churchill, so people in the banquet felt embarrassed for Churchill. This was enough to reflect the attitude of the Soviet Union towards the war zone in North Africa. But Stalin was good when he looked at the big issues. For example, when Britain suffered a setback in North Africa and retreated to Alexandria, the situation was of great emergency. Britain wanted to use the 40 bombers which the United States had promised to reserve for the Soviet Union. So the American Ambassador asked Stalin for his agreement. Stalin agreed without hesitation. 3) After the German army retreated from Soviet territory. Whether the Soviet Union would advance and go directly into Berlin, the American Ambassador reckoned the Soviets would not easily advance. She had to see what the Allies would do before making decisions. Firstly, because the slogan of the Soviet Government was to expel the enemy from Soviet Union territory, it didn’t say hatred for Germany or anything about revenge. Secondly, the Soviet people have suffered to the extreme point, they are more than willing to protect their homelands. But if they try to expand to another country for war they must be convinced for very strong reasons. People only praised how brave the Red Army was in this War of Resistance, but as a matter of fact, the people in the rear have suffered so much they are even worth respecting more than those who fought on the battlefield. 4) German propaganda said the Soviet Union had killed some 12,000 Polish officers. The American Ambassador said that when the Polish President Sikorski visited the Soviet Union, he requested Stalin face-to-face to release the 80 Polish military officers captured by the Soviet Union. Stalin promised to look into the matter but there has been no reply since then. It is rumoured that they were imprisoned in a certain place in the northern part of the Soviet Union. But according to an important person in the Red Cross who has recently been there, he was informed no Polish military officers had been seen. The reasons might be a) a portion might be killed or a portion imprisoned, so the Soviet Union didn’t want to release them immediately, for fear they might go public. b) What the Soviets said was true. The military officers were imprisoned near Smolensk. When the Soviet army wanted to retreat they were unable to retreat as they might be killed by the German army. 5) He saw the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Lozovsky this morning, asking him when the Diplomatic Corps will be able to move back to Moscow. Lozovsky answered that it may be decided by June. He asked if the Soviet Union had to decide after the German offensive. Lozovsky immediately answered “You mean our offensive.” This reflects the Soviet Union’s optimism. The Swedish Minister said one of the Section Heads told the Swedish Minister to Germany that the Germans did not treat the Soviet prisoners as well as the others, because the Soviet Union treated captives badly. When he relayed this to the Lozovskyky, he was delighted to learn about this as it could be used for propaganda. The American Ambassador and Swedish Minister both reckoned that the Soviet Union treated captives worse than Germany. The American Ambassador said that he came across a Polish General in Iran, after his release from Soviet Union who came out to lead the Polish army again. He asked the General about conditions when he was a captive. The officer angrily replied that only God knew what he had suffered. He would never forget throughout his life. But as this time Poland was working with the Soviet Union to fight Germany he would keep silent. This spirit is really admirable. But from these few words one can glean the conditions of captives under Soviet Union.