Thursday, 19 October

Light rain

I studied Russian from 11.00 to 1.30 in the afternoon.

According to enemy news, the American army has landed on a certain island in the central part of the Philippines. The British navy was attacking the northern part of the Nicobar Islands. The British and Indian armies occupied Tiddim. This is all good news. From this we can see that Britain and the United States have started to pay attention to the development of war in the Far East .

Between 5.00 and 7.00 the Greece Ambassador Politis gave a tea party to celebrate the liberation of Athens. Minister Wilgress told me that Eden was really very busy. It was not until last night that he was able to see him. Eden told him that he deeply regretted that the Polish question could not be resolved this time. In Minister Wilgress’s opinion, if Churchill could be as diligent and striving to find ways to solve the Polish problem like now as a year ago, it would have encouraging results. But since the matter has been delayed until now it has became unmanageable, Churchill should shoulder the responsibility. The opinions of the average foreign reporters were that they thought Churchill came to Moscow to solve the Soviet- Polish problem, but now he has failed. I also met Maisky. He thought that we should not be too optimistic about the European war because the German army made a powerful offensive on the East Prussian border and its offensive strength is exceptional.