Saturday, 20 May

In the evening the Soviet Government invited us to the Tschaikovsky Concert Hall to listen to British and Russian music. M.P. Maksakova performed British songs “Blow the Wing Southerly”, “Annie Laurie” and “O No John” with Russian lyrics. They were quite good. Dmitry Shostakovitch played his own piano concerto, Serge Prokofieff led the band and male and female choruses to perform “Arise ye Russian People” and “Alexander Nevsky Enters Pskov”. Two choruses from the Cantata performed “Alesander Nevsky”. The British Symphony orchestra was conducted by Professor. Orlov. During the interval, Maisky talked to me about Guo Taiji. He said he worked with Guo Taiji in London for ten years, and said as a bystander he could observe that Guo Taiji worked very well. Not only was the British Government on good terms with him, but the Diplomatic Corps there also had a good impression of him. But Maisky had heard that the Chinese Government was not good to Guo Taiji and was unable to make full use of his academic ability. He felt it was a great pity.

In the morning, Iceland’s Minister to the Soviet Union Benediktsson visited me. Iceland only has a population of 110,000, but it declared itself an independent state and dispatched a diplomatic envoy. This is really a laughing stock internationally.