Sunday, 9 May

Last night I received a telegram dated 6 May from Vice Minister Wu Guozhen. It said according to Governor Sheng’s report, the Soviet Consul General to Xinjiang informed us as follows. 1) The oil wells at Dushanzhi and the airplane factory have been completely evacuated. 2) The 8th Regiment and also the Soviet advisory to Xinjiang have retreated, therefore, when Vice Minister Wu was ordered to deliver a memorandum to Ambassador Panyushkin, saying that China and the Soviet Union are now discussing joint-running of the Dushanzhi oil wells and the airplane factory, but now they have been suddenly evacuated. We were very surprised. It would be nice if the machinery could be reserved for us, but if the Soviet Union needed it, we would not insist. Vice Minister Wu especially sent me a telegram asking for my opinion. I talked to Counsellors Liu and Chen and it seemed to us that the Soviet Union had no bad intentions behind this action. The Soviet Union was certainly not satisfied with the Xinjiang authority, but had no bad feelings towards the Central Government. Moreover, the Soviet Union has expressed a willingness to work with Allies like Britain and the United States recently. It was rumoured in Turkey that the Soviet Union reached a compromise agreement with Japan. If this is the case, it will arouse very bad reaction from the United States. If the Soviet Union is bad to us, the 8th Division should not be retreated. Therefore I reckoned recently that the Soviet Union thought the people of Britain and the United States dubbed it as red imperialism and aggressive intent. Polish Propaganda said that the Soviet Union wanted to invade China and Poland. The Soviet Union could not give in before Poland, so before Britain and the Soviet Union set up Consulates in Dihua, the Soviet Union evacuated those things that might incur criticism, in order to avoid giving excuses to people. Furthermore, when Chairman Kalinin met me, he had remarked that neither Chinanord the Soviet Union had territorial ambition. This seemed to be an indication. Therefore, I sent a reply telegram to express my opinion. I suggested on the one hand the Xinjiang authority should be more careful and try not to arouse unhappy feelings out of trivial matters. On the other hand, it should express a willingness to the Soviet Union that they hoped to receive Soviet assistance with regard to the development of the north-western economy in order not to make the Soviet Union suspect that China wanted to drive them out of their economic benefit in Xinjiang. Vice Minister Wu’s cable was certainly instructed by the Generalissimo, so I replied in great detail and I prepared this for him to forward to the Generalissimo.
The Soviet Union would set up the Polish army but not organise the establishment of a government. It was as I expected.