Saturday, 8 April

I studied Russian in the morning.

This morning Attachés Qian Chengyong and Liu Zhengyu went to Tehran by plane. We have no daily necessities here. The British and American Embassies can send their own things from their own countries, but we have no such convenience. Since I arrived, with regard to style I have adhered to the order of the Generalissimo. He wanted to be the equivalent of Britain and the United States. Though I have been unable to make it completely for social gatherings, to be honest I think I was not far away from it. Therefore we had to obtain daily necessities by other ways, and the lives of staff in the Chinese Embassy are hard, we have tried our best to make them better. Therefore I have decided to dispatch people outside to procure things for all of us. This time I dispatched Attaché Qian, and Liu Zhengyu wanted to take sick leave because of illness. He seems to suffer from Neurasthenia. It is a great pity.

In the afternoon, I went to the American Embassy to watch movies.

According to the BBC broadcast, Chen Yaozu (陳耀祖)[1] was assassinated in Guangzhou. We were classmates for many years. He was originally a nice chap but he followed his brother-in-law in becoming a collaborator because he got into financial difficulties. This led to his assassination. It is a great pity.

According to the German broadcast today, what the Canadian Minister referred to was Krachenko, who is an economist who came to the United States from the Soviet Union to procure machines. The broadcast also said that the Soviet Union announced the Xinjiang-Mongolia border situation which made Chongqing very uneasy. It is quite natural that the enemy tries to use this to pit one against the other.

The American navy announced that between 29 and 30 of last month, they sank 46 Japanese ships and war ships near the Palau Islands, and destroyed 214 enemy planes in total. I am deeply relieved that the enemy’s power is decreasing over the Pacific.

The Soviet Union announced that it has already entered their old Czechoslovakian border and pushed a little bit South to Romanian territory. It has also occupied Botosctcharny and Dorokhoi. The Red Army advancement is really speedy. The British and American military authorities may not dare to adopt this new tactic.

[1] Chen Yaozu (1892-1944) studied at the University of Hong Kong. He was the younger brother of the wife of Wang Jingwei.