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Sunday, 17 December

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Sunday, 17 December

Fine, sunny and cold

 

In the morning, Military Attaché Guo came to talk with me. According to the British and American news the Soviet Union has increased two divisons of infantry and one division of its air force. All in all the Red Army has more than 30-something divisions in the Far East. It is also rumoured that the American side has decided with the Soviet Union that if recently there is any slight progress in the European war they could temporarily use the air force base in the Far East. Therefore the American Ambassador has arranged a special room, in his residence, for military staff to prepare all the arrangements. What Guo said is most likely because the Japanese army originally had 30 divisions in the Northeast. Now it has transferred 17 divisions to China to fight, and only 30 remain. The Soviet Union feel that the Japanese threat to it is over. As a matter of fact, Japan has two million soldiers in China, and from the line starting from Chengzhou to South China, the Japanese army has 29 divisions. If it fought with the Soviet Union, its military strength in the frontline would not reach one million people. Therefore the Soviet Union absolutely is not afraid of Japan. Even though the Soviet Union is permitting the United States to use its base for its air force, Japan dare not declare war over it.

 

The American Ambassador relayed the letter from Donald Nelson. He thanked me for my reception in Moscow and I talked to him about various sides’ situations and his tone was courteous. I immediately replied to thank him for helping China. This visit by him and Hurley to China has been really helpful for Sino-American relations.

In the evening I invited the Soviet famous painter, P.P. Konchalovsky, and his wife, as well as the female poet Miss Brüm for a meal at the Embasssy. We had hot pot and they were very happy. Painter P.P. Konchalovsky studied painting in France and Italy, his father-in-law was Vasily Surikov, who was as famous as Repin. The female poet, Miss Brüm, was originally a Romanian. Her poems have been translated into many languages in many countries in Europe. She liked Chinese poems, and could recite many poems of four lines by Li Bo in Chinese. It ended at 11.00 and they were very happy.