Saturday, 25 November

Dull, light rain

I received the telegram from Minister Song yesterday morning, asking if there was any update regarding his visit to Moscow. He asked me to inquire from the Soviet Government again about this, so I made an appointment to meet Foreign Minister Molotov. He decided that we could meet at about 10.00 p.m. At the time I came with Shaozhou to meet him at the Kremlin Palace. First I said that when I met with him in Moscow, he spoke of his warm regard for the Sino-Soviet friendship and cooperation. This was exactly the idea of the Generalissimo, therefore I reported it many times to our Central Government and in the past year and so, our Central Government has tried its best to be on friendly terms with the Soviet Union, for example the Xinjiang Incident could be evidence of this. Now the global situation is changing, the Generalissimo thinks that there is a real need to send Minister T.V. Song whom he trusts most to come to negotiate with Stalin and Kalinin, therefore I had asked Deputy Foreign Minister Lozovsky to relay the request earlier. Later Deputy Foreign Minister Lozovsky replied that it was a matter of date. I have reported this to our Central Government, and now it has been a long while. Minister Song sent me telegram yesterday and asked me to inquire from Lozovsky again about the date. I asked Molotov if the Soviet Government had reached any decision yet. Molotov replied that the Soviet Government agreed in principle the visit of Minister Song to the Soviet Union, but because the Soviet Union was in the midst of war preparation, and particularly during this autumn and winter, Marshall Stalin is very preoccupied with coordinating and directing the war and we as helpers are also very busy. Therefore they have carefully considered the date of the arrival of Minister Song and now they can tell us the results after this consideration. He said that it would be most appropriate for Minister Song to visit Moscow by the end of February or early March next year, and he asked me what I thought. I said I would certainly relay this to our government. With regard to what it thought, I had to wait for instruction and get back to him. As for my personal opinion, I thought if there was difficulty, it would be good if the Soviet side could arrange the time slot first. He told me that since I talked about the Xinjiang Incident, he told me that even though the Head of Xinjiang has been replaced, the situation there did not have much improvement. What Sheng Shicai did in the past was greatly harmful to Sino-Soviet relations. I replied that with regard to the Xinjiang Incident I had talked to Ambassador Panyushkin in Chongqing and that the situation in Xinjiang was complicated, and Central Government put its main focus on the resistance war, and could spare no time to attend to that place. After the incident happened we needed substantial preparation and arrangement then we could handle it. Otherwise if we mishandled it it would affect the overall situation of the resistance war. Now after preparing for a long time, when implementing we still faced quite a few problems. In this it was enough to prove the determination and dedication of our Central Government and the Generalissimo in paying attention to the Sino-Soviet friendship. We could further prove that the Generalissimo has decided to dispatch Counsellor Liu to be special envoy to Xinjiang. Counsellor Liu leaving here has put me to great inconvenience but I did not dare to oppose. From this one can see we have paid the utmost attention to improve the situation in Xinjiang province. Chairman Wu is quite open-minded, he has followed Dr. Sun in the past and knows me very well. He knows deeply the importance of, and the Generalissimo’s policy with regard to Sino-Soviet relations, therefore on his arrival in Xinjiang he started gradual reform. But according to his telegram which I received recently, he said even for personnel re-arrangement it will take a substantial amount of time because Xinjiang is large and there are numerous posts which need careful selection. During our wartime it is not an easy task. Molotov said that he would wait and see, and as for personnel matters, he said he certainly could not interfere. It happened that I mentioned the Xinjiang issue so he told me his opinion. I also said that why the Generalissimo sent me to the Soviet Union was because he wanted to further Sino-Soviet relations. Therefore when I left Chongqing the Generalissimo authorised me to negotiate any matter. I also had a direct telegram code book with the Generalissimo, and I had the power to be in touch with him direct. If necessary I could skip the Foreign Ministry. Therefore if there was anything important the Soviet Government could negotiate with me. The Soviet Government could consider me as most friendly to the Soviet Union and they could talk to me honestly about any matter. Molotov thanked me for my kindness and he said he would remember it. For tonight the meeting the mood was fine. Probably they expect that they will know the overall picture of the European war by February or March next year. Also world politics will be clear too. The Sino-Soviet relations are closely connected with these two things. Not until then will it be easy for the Soviet Union to have negotiations with our country.

At 7.00 in the evening I invited the Soviet Foreign Office, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Defense, VOKS, Cinema Committee, as well as celebrities of the Soviet art sector to the Chinese Embassy to watch Ernü yingxiong. Deputy Foreign Minister Lozovsky, Deputy Minister Kaganovich and others which made more than forty people attended. I prepared snacks. Afterwards people danced until twelve and they left happy The famous painter (see original) and the Czech poet (see original) and his wifem and the Soya sisters stayed until 1.00.

(Seventy bombers flew from Saipan Island to bombard Tokyo. The United States declared that they would bombard in a non-stopp manner. Japan will taste its bitter fruit later.)