Thursday, 15 June

Fine, quite warm

The climate here is undeniably a continental one. Every year from the end of April until the end of August there is no rain. Although it snows in the winter, it melts immediately. So hydrology is absolutely crucial, and the government has paid a lot of attention to it. As people need to carry the water to irrigate their farmlands, they are also hardworking. The area was originally Bukhoro State, and after being defeated by Imperial Russia it became a Russian satellite. But Bukhoro still has an emperor. Last night the gold embroidered gown presented by its Premier to Roosevelt was taken from the Bukhoro Palace’s treasures. The gown which was presented to Wallace was used by the Bukhoro prince in the past. The Bukhoro Emperor was originally a descendent of the Mongolian Temür (After Genghis Khan had conquered countries, he dispatched one son to govern China, one to rule Russia, and one to Middle Asia), but after his rule over Middle Asia, his clans were influenced by Islam, so people here are mainly what Chinese called Uyghur. There were many Mongolians. People here are quite nice and easy to govern, which is different from Kazakh. Temür’s tomb and the various relics are in the old capital Samarkand. Tashkent is a relatively new city and now it is the biggest in Soviet Middle Asia. It is also the final part of the Soviet Union in East Asia. In the Uzbek language Tashkent means “overspill”, which infers that the population is too high.

At 11.00 Jiesan came and I went with him to our Consulate. The Consulate is quite nice, the decorations are fine too. There is a big garden to the rear of the house and many fruits, trees, flowers and vegetables are planted there. The Consulate was originally in the countryside, and there are many acres of rented lands. But in the past the Consul-Generals had difficulty hiring people to farm them, so they rented them out, only taking a portion for the Embassy. Tenants would sell left over vegetables. They were able to reap good profits and sell in the black market, which was against the Soviet law. The Soviet side protested repeatedly. So Jiesan returned them to the government and as a result it was favourable towards him. This move of Jiesan’s action was appropriate, as these little advantages are against the local law. Our diplomats stationed in other countries should never do it. The Consulate should have an Assistant Consul, Qin Mu (秦穆), but he hasn’t arrived. Now we only have Pan Wanyuan (潘萬元) in charge and his wife. Within the jurisdiction there are around 5,000 Overseas Chinese. They are quite busy. The majority of the Overseas Chinese are Muslims, Han people being only around ten percent.

I rested for a while at the Consulate. Afterwards I went with Jiesan, Shaozhou and Daichu to the town. Initially we went to the second-hand shop. There were only a few products for sale, and their prices were much higher than in Moscow. We then went to a jewellery shop where I bought a second-hand cloisonné cigarette box. It was not cheap and I just took it as a souvenir. We then went to a department store, and there were few products for sale. We also went to a bookshop. Every time I went to a shop, lots of women and children followed us, just like several decades ago when Chinese children would follow foreigners when they walked on the streets. We were rather embarrassed and there was little to buy, so we turned back to the Consulate. After lunch I took a rest for a while in Jiesan’s room. In the morning we had been to the “old town”. That place hadn’t undergone much renovation. The products it sold were similar to those in our countryside markets which are very dirty. There was a dilapidated house that had been left behind by a certain Overseas Chinese, which is now managed by the Consulate. I heard that in the past the Consul used this house to pursue illegal activities. I met a wounded Chinese soldier. The Soviet side thought of giving him a pension because he was wounded while fighting as a member of the Red Army. He did not accept it and only wanted to return to China. This reflects the Chinese concept of affiliation to one’s native place and country.

At 5.30 in the afternoon, I went to Vice-President Wallace’s residence. I talked to Vincent and Lattimore first. They were very concerned about the Chinese Communist Party and the Xinjiang problem. I elucidated briefly. They also told me that this time Wallace visited China but did not have any special mission as rumoured outside. They also said that the Washington side assumed that with regard to the Soviet-Japan fishing agreement and others Chongqing would view this as the Soviet Union and Japan having a secret understanding, which meant the Soviet Union would help Japan to invade China. In other words, all Americans thought it was unwise for the Chinese Government to blame the Soviet Union for betraying China. Because even a child would not believe that Japan could use these two agreements to force the Soviet Union to abandon its cooperation with the United States and China. They all thought that it was unjust for our China to shift the blame for the military failure to the Soviet Union.

At 6.00 I went to meet Vice-President Wallace. We then went to the garden and talked under the trees for half an hour. (To guarantee that nobody would eavesdrop.) He said he had long decided to visit China. When Madame Chiang invited him in the United States last year he had wanted to go but because he was so busy he had it delayed until now. On this trip he represented President Roosevelt and so he had three missions. 1) He would discuss with Chairman Chiang with regard to post-war agricultural development and assistance to China. 2) He would talk to Chairman Chiang with regard to any question Chiang raised on behalf of Roosevelt. Because this time he visited China he tried to help China solve problems in his capacity as a friend of China. It is only China who would know what problems it is facing. Therefore he was only willing to discuss the issues China raised, and he himself would not raise any question. 3) He will go to the various bases where American air forces are stationed to meet American forces, and to see how they cooperate with China. He also wants to see in person the Sino-American forces Stilwell trained, to see what has happened with them and how to improve them. He asked me about my job here. I told him that it was natural that the Sino-Soviet relationship was affected by historical, geographical factors, as well as local strife. However, according to my observations here in excess of a year, the highest authority of the Soviet Union is certainly very willing to cooperate with Britain and the United States. It is also very friendly to the Chinese side, and will never throw away the wartime and post-war cooperation spirit decided at the Moscow, Cairo and Tehran Conferences. Also our Chairman Chiang is extremely sincere and aims to work with the Soviet Union. Recently Ambassador Panyushkin returned to the Soviet Union from China. He also told me that he trusted deeply Chairman Chiang’s sincereity, therefore the Sino-Soviet relation is not as bad as rumoured outside. He replied that he was very happy to hear about this, as the American side wanted China and the Soviet Union to be friendly. He also said when President Roosevelt was back in the United States, he told him in detail about the Cairo Conference. He was pleased to learn about it. Afterwards he showed me a little lawn mower he has invented, and we went to the garden to test it. Soviet photographers and film makers kept taking photographs at the time. After a while Wallace suggested I play volleyball with him. I hadn’t played it for more than three decades, but his interest was as great as that of a young person. He took off his shirt and I had no choice but to do the same. It so happened that the Mexican Ambassador was there so we forced him to take off his shirt and join us. He was an amateur, so even two of us could not defeat Wallace in the game.

At 7.30 we returned to the Consulate for dinner. I was invited to the Grand Theatre by the Uzbek Government to watch the music, dancing and recital prepared by the Government. First the Premier of the Uzbek Republic Abdurakhmanov delivered a welcome speech addressing Vice-President Wallace first, and then I and Ambassador Harriman and others. Wallace replied in Russian. Although his Russian was not very good, it is rare that he coulthroughattain such a level by learning Russian in the United States. Therefore the people applauded enthusiastically. The programme was a full one. It started out with 1) Halima Nasyrova, who is the most famous soprano in Middle Asia. (People call her the Nightingale of the Middle East.) (sic) She sang “Aria of Nadira” and the opera “The Great Canal”, “Like a Madonna in Beauty” (A Tadjik folksong) and “Gor-Oghly” (American folksong). 2) Bokhara folkdance by Rosiya Karimova. Halina Rakinova and others. Their dances are similar to Chinese dances in many aspects. They stressed expressions, used heads, eyes and hands a lot, which differs from European dances as the latter use legs a lot. 3) “Arioso of Tarzin” sung by Zakiro. The tenor was just plain. 4) Ferghana Lyric Dance by Fabriya Djamitova. 5) “Ailanaman” sung by K.Boruhova. Plain. 6) “Zang” Bokhara folkdance by Oliya Ismailova. It was quite good. The performance on washing clothing and sewing was no different from old Chinese plays. She was very pretty so no wonder the Mexican Ambassador praised her highly. 7) “Nagara Dance” by Karimova. What we meant by “Karimova” was like a trumpet. It is twenty feet in length and hard to play. It is really a special musical instrument. The other Uzbek musical instruments are similar to Chinese musical instruments. The dulcimer, erhu, violin and others are exactly the same. 8) What Sara Samandarova sang was fine. I heard that she is an orphan. She is pretty and looks like an oriental person. In the second session because she was not performing she joined us to watch the performances off stage. The show ended at half past midnight. By the time we got back to the villa at Durmen it was already 1.30am. Because there were so many mosquitoes I could not get to sleep until 2.30.