Thursday, 2 November

Dull

From 11.00 to 1.30 in the afternoon I studied Russian.

Military Attaché Guo came and told me that the Head of the British Military Delegation General Burrows left Moscow yesterday morning. He secretly told Military Attaché Guo that if the Soviet Union did not improve its treatment of British military representatives, the British Government would not send any more here. Also the Head of the American military delegation, General Deane, told Guo that the Soviet Union also made things difficult for Americans too. It happened that from his delegation several junior staff have returned to the United States and therefore he needed the United States to send replacements, but the Soviet side was unwilling to issue visas, saying that he already had enough staff and there was no need to have so many. Also the American Commander of the bomber group stationed in the Mediterranean came to the Soviet Union the week before last, and made a request to inspect his bombers’ base in the Soviet Union, nevertheless the Soviet Union did not approve and he stayed here for several days and left very unhappy. All this shows that the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States still harbour a lot of unpleasantness. It is quite worrying. Military Attaché Guo also said he heard that the recall of Stilwell was that he could not cooperate with the Chinese Generals and officers under his command. It was because Stilwell wanted to try a new experiment in the Burma war zone. He worked as the Commander-in-Chief and directed the divisions to fight in the Front line, while Division Commanders and Army Commanders were put in the rear far away. Also as for the American aid being sent to China and Stilwell’s distribution them he did not allow them to be sent to various battle fields and just reserve them for his own use.

In the past few days the British newspapers have commented on the cooperation of the Big Three, though they tried their best to avoid saying that Churchill’s visit to Moscow was a failure, they have hinted that Britain could no longer be too accommodating to the Soviet Union. For instance, they said that the leaders of the Big Three should meet again this year, but Churchill shouldn’t go to other places to meet them. He should invite Roosevelt and Stalin to Britain.

Yesterday the Chairman of Xinjiang Province Wu Zhongxin sent me a telegram saying that he has tried to improve the Sino-Soviet relationship on assuming duty, but Xinjiang is large and it has taken time to change and replace envoys. What he said was most sincere and I felt relieved. Therefore I replied to his telegram, telling him that now our country’s situation desperately needed help from Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, the Sino-Russian relationship was of great importance. Now he has taken charge of a new policy in Xinjiang, Britian, the United States and the Soviet Union should pay great attention to him. They kept asking me about it, and I have told them his relation with our party and his character in detail, and I hoped that he could be with me from time to time for various issues.