Saturday, 18 December

Military Attaché Guo reported to me that yesterday he had talked to the head of the British military delegation General Martel. According to him: 1) In the Tehran Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill raised the military plan to talk to Stalin, they were worried that Stalin might pose objections, but when Stalin finished reading all the plans, he approved certain plans could be adopted. He was so quick in making the decision. Roosevelt and Churchill said that this was fine and they immediately handed the plans to the military experts of the three sides to study. Then Stalin said that as three of them had decided. It was fine. There was no need to forward to them for further study and so the plan was passed. Roosevelt and Churchill praised Stalin’s decisiveness. Also Roosevelt and Churchill suggested discussing military issues with Stalin. Stalin immediately said that no military personnel accompanied him. But Marshal Voroshilov is also not present. This proves that recently Voroshilov is not as important in the Soviet military as before. 2) This time during the Tehran Conference, there was not much arguing amongst Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, so Stalin mused at Prime Minister Churchill that it was a pity that he had not had a chance to argue with Churchill. Churchill also replied that if Stalin argued with him again he would call Stalin a Jew. Then they laughed. 2) The second war zone would have to be open by spring next year. Probably it would be in the Mediterranean and Southern France. It is also necessary to mount a massive offensive against Japan, and it will be implemented by next summer/winter. Military Attaché Guo also said in recent weeks the Soviet Government had dispatched spies to follow the Swedish Minister and his staff, which seemed to illustrate its discontent with the Swedish Government.

Last night Attaché Hu invited the intelligence attachés of various embassies and reporters to a banquet. According to Cassidy, she heard that the head of the Central News Agency Xiao Tongci (蕭同滋)[1] would go to Moscow to meet with Tass representatives from.

[1] Xiao Tongci (1895-1973) was the head of Central News Agency. He went to Taiwan after 1949.