Saturday, 22 December

This time, the General Assembly of the United Nations has met in Paris. Ambassador Yu Junji is one of the representatives of our country. Therefore, when he is here he always comes over to talk to me. He has invited Sun Fo and me, and others, to visit Italy with him during the adjournment period. I think that traveling in winter may be inappropriate; also my financial situation is was much worse than in the past, and it would cost quite a lot if I took my wife to go. I was even more unwilling to be paid by others. Therefore, I wanted to decline, and asked Sun Fo and his wife, as well as Baoqiao to go instead. But Sun Fo, Yu Junji and Liu Kai were eager that I should come, and Kitty also wanted to go with Zhongxiong, therefore I had to agree. But something unhappy happened even before the departure as Sun Fo’s wife made many ridiculous suggestions with regard to division of travel expenditure. Her thought was that she feared that we would take advantage of Sun Fo. Therefore Sun Fo originally took the suggestion of Baoqiao. He wanted me to pay all the expenditure on their behalf first, and then it would be divided into five portions. Sun Fo and I would take 2/5 respectively, while Baoqiao 1/5. As Zhongxiong and Mr. Zhang took the car and were the drivers, they did not need to pay. This was the suggestion of Sun Fo and Baoqiao. I only went along with their suggestion. But Sun Fo’s wife strongly opposed it, and even told Boaqiao that when Song Ziwen asked his subordinate to buy anything he would not pay. She thought that I and Baoqiao should bear the expenditure of her and Sun Fo. One would find it ridiculous if he listened to such words, and pitied that she was such a fool. Therefore, Baoqiao immediately replied that Song Ziwen had aroused big trouble that he wondered that if they wanted to show how mean Song Ziwen is. Therefore, I decided absolutely not to pay on their behalf first. When Sun Fo touched on this matter last night, I immediately suggested that we should pay respectively. For lunch and supper, we would pay once on rotation. He also agreed. As a matter of fact, if I was not plagued by financial difficulty now, I would certainly show my generosity to bear the expenditure of Sun Fo and his wife. The money was just two or three hundred dollars and there was no need to be too calculating. But now I really do not have such capability.

I woke up at seven and had breakfast at half past seven. At eight the car of Ambassador Yu arrived. We took my car and Mr. Yu’s car and.  We all gathered at Prince de Galle Hotel in Paris. Sun Fo and his wife, Ambassador Yu Junji, Ambassador Bao Junjian (保君健) took the car of Mr.Yu. I, Kitty, Zhongxiong and Liu Kai took my car. Liu Qinwu, Baoqiao and Mr. Zhang took their car. We did not depart until 10.10 in the morning. The weather was so bad and it was so foggy. The cars moved quite slowly. We arrived Auxerre and had lunch at Au Cerf Volant (8, Place Robillard). The cold meat and chicken were quite good and their prices were reasonable. Sun Fo made the first treat. After lunch we departed at four. The fog was even more heavy. Mr. Yu was so courteous that he asked his driver to drive my car. And he drove his own. But he drove too fast so that at a junction road he wrongly turned towards Dijon, while the car of Zhang followed him. Yu knew that he had taken the wrong direction and turned back, but Zhang’s car lost direction because of the heavy fog. Therefore the three cars were separated. As I said during the lunch that I would treat us all to dinner at L’Auberge Bressane at Mâcon, 14,rue du 28 Juin 1944,therefore I tried my best to get there first. When I arrived the two cars had still not arrived. It was already rather late and past eight o’clock, so we ate first. At eight-thirty Sun Fo’s car also arrived. So I would pay as I promised. The eel of this restaurant is quite good, but the eggs were not as good as the ones we had eaten this morning. Still it was quite good. It only cost 11,000 francs for eight people. After dinner the fog was quite heavy so we wanted to stay at Mâcon, nevertheless the owner of the restaurant tried his best to find hostel for us but it was a pity that no room was available, so we had to carry on the trip. The cars proceeded slowly and quite dangerously. At eleven we arrived at Lyon safely and immediately stayed at Carlton pl. Republique. We knew that the car of Zhang had not yet arrived and we were in great worry. Sun Fo was very angry as his luggage was in Zhang’s car. He lost his temper with Mr. Yu Junji. What he said was like a child. Under the current circumstances, that Sun Fo behaved like this was a great pity. I wonder if he could really improve his character. I stayed in Room 319 and the rent was 1100 francs, which excluded other charges. I slept until half past two.