Thursday, 10 February

Fine, sun

Yesterday the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, talked to reporters. He declared that the American navy will try to land on the Chinese coast, and if the Japanese fleets wanted to stop them, then it would have to use its fleet to fight the American fleet, and this was welcomed by the United States. If Japan wants to avoid a sea war, the American navy and air force will occupy areas near the Chinese coast, and they can be used as bases for the purpose of bombarding Japan Proper. The British and American strength used to bombard Germany will be used in the same manner in Japan. Commander-in-Chief Nimitz also said that the important Japanese base in the Marshall Islands, Kwajalein Atoll, was also occupied by the American army. The Japanese armies in other small islands are around 10,000, but their movements have been cut off, and if Japan is unable to supply its men, then the Japanese armies will be “left to die on the vine while his forces keep going westward.” This is a piece of good news to us.

In the afternoon, I went to the cinema committee to watch British war films with Counsellor Liu and Attaché Hu. One film was about the War of Resistance in Greece and was particularly good. Afterwards, I went to second-hand shops with Liu and Hu, and bought nothing. Then we went to the Cossack restaurant, and we had roasted mutton and fish soup for dinner. Both were fine. I have got used to mutton. Counsellor Liu said his children studied in school, and they were recently instructed to prepare gas masks on their own. It is very puzzling to have such preparation now. So amongst the Soviet students, they mainly said they were preparing in case Finland used poison gas against them. This time the German’s army North line atrocities are being delegated to the Finnish, so the Soviets certainly cannot forget the behaviour of the Finnish at Leningrad. The United States doesn’t know what happened and there are quite a few people sympathetic to Finland. This is surely harmful for American-Soviet relations, and will give unrealistic hopes to the Finnish. This is not the right way to extend grace to the Finnish. The day before yesterday, the Secretary of State, Hull, warned the Finnish Government, saying it would suffer the consequences and that the United States could not offer help to them. This is advantageous to Finland and actually the United States should have done it earlier. Today news from Sweden said that Finland was afraid after receiving this warning from the United States, they then immediately held a Cabinet meeting. The Finnish President, Ryti, announced in Parliament that the Finnish situation was worsening and in the past few days Soviet broadcasts and newspapers criticised Finland fiercely. The prospects for Finland are very gloomy.