Thursday, 2 October

According to the news yesterday, our army scored a victory in northern Hupei. Enemy casualties were some forty thousand. We were chasing them. The whole city was filled with great happiness. Every family flew flags and burnt fire-crackers to celebrate. This victory had great significance for our resistance prospects, and internationally speaking it was particularly important. Xu Daolin returned from Italy and he said conditions there were really very bad. Under Mussolini, German consultants and specialists could be found in every layer of military structure and industrial organisations. As a matter of fact, they were all in the control of Germans. If Italians offended Italians, there would not be a big problem, but if they offended Germans, there would be no way of repairing [relations]. Germans led the Italian Government sections using verbal orders, and Italy had to follow closely. The decadence of society was even worse than before the reform. Xu gave a concrete example, saying that all personnel in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs were handsome men because it was Madame Ciano who had selected them.[1]

[1] Madame Ciano was Mussolini’s daughter