Saturday, 23 October

At 11.45 a.m. I went to see Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and he told me what happened in the conference in detail over the last few days.  He says the future is quite optimistic. I then reported to the Generalissimo.

Originally, I asked Mr. Cordell Hull to keep our meetings secret. But when the American Intelligence Director met American reporters, he declared that Mr. Cordell Hull has already talked to me twice. Therefore, in the afternoon while I was watching films in the American embassy, Harold King, reporter of The Times, told me that people tried to work out what Hull and I have been talking about during the two meetings. I just smiled and replied that Elder Cordell Hull was very respectable, and I was just trying to show my respects to him, there was nothing special. We smiled and the matter wassettled.

With regard to this I had no choice but to report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well. What I could say was that I visited Hull twice and learnt from him that the atmosphere of the conference was fine. As Vice Ministers Wu and Hu read my telegram, they would understand my reason as I could only report to the Generalissimo direct.