Thursday, 11 March

Sixth day of the second lunar month

At 1.00 in the afternoon I went to see Tadeusz Romer, the Polish Ambassador and we had a talk.1)He referred to the words of Ambassador Shao Lizi that Japan would soon attack the Soviet Union. But he was in Japan for many years and came here from Japan recently. He reckoned that Japan would certainly not attack the Soviet Union at the moment. He said that several months ago, when he came to the Soviet Union, Molotov asked him about the attack, and he answered with frankness: 2) The second war zone should be opened as soon as possible. Otherwise, the problem of mobilising the people in the German occupied territories will become serious. Also, the British and American armies had no difficulty landing in Italy because lately Italy has been very unhappy with Germany. 3) The problems of the territories between Poland and the Soviet Union, as well as the nationality of the expatriates are extremely complicated and difficult. He now handles these issues and has gradually reached a certain mutual understanding with the Soviet Union. Probably both sides will not raise this question until after the war.

At 5.00 in the afternoon, I went to the Soviet Union Department of Foreign Trade to see Minister Mikoyan with specialist Hu. She was the translator. After the pleasantries, I gave him the introductory letter from President Sun. The things we discussed were roughly as follows. l) He said the Sino-Soviet relationship was always very close. In the recent past, they offered a lot of help. However, now because of the war, they had to reduce a bit, but in all ways possible they would try to continue to help. 2) With regard to transportation via the Soviet Union, he said that the matter was already decided last autumn in principle, but progress was slow. The problem was not with the Soviet Union. The reasons were (a) Britain was still unable to deliver the trucks to the Soviet Union and (b) the transportation power of the Indian-Iran road was too weak. Britain had promised to transport 10,000 tons per month, but until January this year only 1,000 tons had been delivered. As for America, she requested dispatching envoys to inspect the transportation routes in Soviet territory. The Soviet Union thought it was not necessary because the principal part was railway and with regard to its transport capacity and condition, the Soviet Union Government knew this very well, so there was no need for the inspection. I replied that our side did not know why the transportation was unable to operate for such a long time, so we wanted to investigate. But now, as the Minister claimed that there was no need to do so, we did not insist on this. After hearing this, Minister Mikoyan’s attitude changed immediately. I told him the American side had already informed us they would first deliver 1,000 trucks and let China and the Soviet Union divide them up between themselves. The British General Army Commander stationed in India also agreed that when the trucks reached Karachi, they could be first assembled. It was expected that the arrival and the assembling would take time. After that the capacity of the Indian-Iran route transportation would be able to increase. Mikoyan promised that once the trucks arrived and the subsequent strengthening of Indian-Iran road transportation, then the Soviet Union could start transportation. I also proposed that the 300 tons of petrol per month should not be counted in the 2,000 tons of transport capacity monthly. Mikoyan said that if the transportation resource was sufficient it could be done as suggested. And I also proposed the receiving point could be either Mashhad in Iran or Ashgabat within Soviet territory. As to the final point of transportation for Russia, we would like to change it to Hami instead of Xingxingxia. Because Xingxingxia was not well-facilitated, even the supply of water was a problem. Mikoyan said this was not difficult to solve, we could talk about it in Kuibyshev with [M refer to original] 3) I told him about the recent development of Chinese heavy industry and also its needs, such as equipment we needed for the Yumen oil wells in Gansu. Mikoyan said war could teach us a lot things to a certain extent, as it could teach people how to unite to resist foreign aggression. China has a big population, and after mobilisation it could strengthen the strength of the War of Resistance. He really quite admired that we could fight on one side and build our country on the other. With regard to supplying the equipment for the oil wells, because the Soviet Union at the moment needed more oil, they also needed to expand their oil wells, they reluctantly had to order facilities for oil wells via the United States. Until the war ended, they would try their best to help. 4) China’s post-war economic re-establishment would be wholly similar to those of the Soviet Union, therefore the Soviet experience would be very good for us to adopt. I asked his help in this regard. He said he would try his best to give us information. We talked for an hour and his attitude was quite good and very sincere. I was deeply satisfied.

In the evening, we went to see a circus. Quite good.