Thursday, 20 January
Fine
At 12.00 noon, I visited the Afghanistan Ambassador Sultan Ahmed Khan. He is pessimistic about the current situation, and he thinks that after the defeat of the German and Japanese aggressors, Britain and the Soviet Union will take their places, as the history of Britain and the Soviet Union have promised nothing to state they are not aggressors, and the recent Soviet-Afghanistan border conflict could be enough to prove this. This type of small island in the middle of a river has no strategic value to the Soviet Union’s War of Resistance, he thought there was no point scrambling for this from the weak and small Afghanistan. What Afghanistan asked was that the Soviet Union provide evidence of ownership, if they have the right, then Afghanistan will give in. But the Soviet Union ignored this request, and asked their soldiers to open fire beyond the border, killing many innocent people. This was unnecessary. It happened that his son has come from Afghanistan to visit him so he is highly delighted, and asked his son to see me. The young person was 16 years old, a student of form III and a nice person. According to the Afghanistan royal family, regulations stated that the Prince is required to join the military force, but he wants his son to study abroad, so he needs to get the permission from the Afghanistan Emperor, but this is not easy.
The Soviet army has started an attack in the vicinity of Leninburg in the North, after five days of fierce fighting, and today they recovered Novgorod. The German army casualties were high, and the Red Army still has vast military strength in the North to start a large scale offensive. This proved they were very strong. The British and American armies also captured Minturno.
Editorials of various American newspapers continued to condemn Pravda for publishing the peace talk between Britain and Germany rumour. They deemed it a lack of cooperative spirit. A broadcast from Chongqing also said that Chinese public opinion thought that it was “unnecessary”, and so the newspapers did not publish it.
The second issue of War and the Working Class magazine this year published some articles. 1) With regard to the Western European battlefield , the article said that final preparations for landing have been completed, those Europe countries which are deep in suffering are eligible to hope that that Allied troops’ clumsiness will not happen again. Also, Hitler’s Germany’s only hope now is activity by defeatists and pacifists within Allied country, and it will be a pity if such conspiratorial activity is not stopped effectively. I think that the progress of the British and American armies has been slow in Italy, no wonder it arouses dissatisfaction. Before the opening of the second war zone, the Soviet Union first used a lecturing tone to request Britain and the United States not to delay. The British and American people think highly of themselves, and the Soviet Union has treated them as children and lectured them which certainly arouses bad feelings. As for criticising Britain and the United States for not silencing the opinions of the minority, it is clear that the Soviet Union doesn’t know British and American political culture, because Britain and the United States deem freedom of speech as their biggest progress politically. This type of criticism from the Soviet Union is almost saying that Britain and the United States should imitate the Soviet way which totally bans opponents’ opinions. Certainly, Britain and the United States would be against it, and there is a suspicion that the Soviet Union wants to interfere in their internal politics. 2) With regard to the article on Italy’s situation, it said that Badoglio’s Government hasn’t extinguished Fascism. The political prisoners are still in custody, and the Government hasn’t granted political freedom to anti-Fascist parties. 3) With regard to the article on Greece’s resistance, it said Sarafis’ People’s Liberation Army fought bravely, but the anti-reactionary organisation of Zervas is famous for its passive resistance, as a matter of fact it helped the enemy resist the People’s Liberation Army. The Greek Government in Egypt refused to cooperate with the People’s Liberation Army, but it helped the anti-reactionary organisation of Zervas and this made patriotic bodies very unhappy with their Government. 4) With regard to UNRRA organisation, it said the various sectors have two tendencies for the said organisation. One is that it is purely to help people in the occupied areas to rehabilitate. One is that certain British and American entrepreneurs work for the benefit of their own countries, and also want to satisfy their wishes to guarantee post-war trade development. When the article discussed the important and practical issues of UNRRA, it said we should pay attention to the following aspects. (a) The distribution of aid has to be just, but towards this there is no concrete resolution. (b) The clearance of aid, for example the money used to aid Germany and its allies, whether or not they should repay. Britain, the United States and others advocated that it shouldn’t be repaid, but China, the Soviet Union and others opposed this. After the majority resolution they should be asked to repay the debt. (c) With regard to the method of working (of the organization) in various countries, it was decided that the various countries should divide the work themselves, and lastly, they should pay special attention to the work of UNRRA [United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration] then the work will become easy. I thought that with regard to the Italian incident, the Soviet Union should also have had representation in the consultant committee. They did not propose from within the committee but openly criticised it, (I thought) it was against the conference spirit. As for Greece, the Soviet Union was clearly favoured to a particular sect, and shot at the Allied Governments, which clearly indicates acts of interference in the internal politics of other countries. Regarding UNRRA, its organisation was originally an act of American benevolence, and the Soviet Union has also agreed and sent representatives to take part. They are very active in the organisation and now, they have suddenly turned around and said this organisation is only for personal gain. They publicised what happened at the conference, which is a breach in terms of etiquette and the cooperative spirit of the conference. All in all, all these articles pose great obstacles to Allied cooperation. These will also encourage anti-Soviet elements in Britain and the United States. This move by the Soviet Union certainly reflects that they are ignorant of British and American political attitudes. It is also true that the Soviet leaders felt proud with the Red Army landslide victory. There have been many misunderstandings recently, when Hitler and Tōjō (Tōjō Hideki, 東條英機)[1] saw these articles published by the Soviet Union, they will build bronze statues to their authors praising them for their assistance to Germany and Japan. I am deeply worried.