Thursday, 22 July
A telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Japanese reckoned that the Germans would soon be defeated, and in order to save themselves from defeat they have especially sent many important people to the Soviet Union to secretly negotiate. It also asked the renegade Nationalist Government in Nanjing to cancel the anti-communism slogan, and appointed H.H. Yen as Foreign Office Minister and sent Eugene Chen to the Soviet Union to negotiate the relocation of the Japanese capital to the three provinces in Northeast China. I immediately replied, saying briefly that the Japanese wanting to ally themselves with Soviets is normal, but I haven’t heard anything about them sending people here. Satō has long advocated a Japan-Soviet Alliance and Germany should have peace talks with the Soviet Union, but nothing has really come out of it. And recently Satō was back in Kuibyshev from Moscow, He had talked to a certain envoy and he was not very happy with the Soviet Unions’s actions. He seemed to be not in a good mood. Also Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs personnel have told me that they looked down upon Eugene Chen. My personal opinion is that as the Soviet Union has such a big enemy on their territory, it has to maintain normal communications with Japan. But as it now cooperates with Britain and the United States with fighting, so it will not develop its relationship with Japan.
According to Soviet newspapers yesterday, on the 12 and 13 of this month the National Committee for a Free Germany was established, and nominated poet Erich Weinert to be the chairman. They made a declaration and advocated that Germany should stop the war and ask for peace. It also announced its policy within the announcement, saying they wanted to safeguard their right of freedom re managing business. I immediately reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Military Attaché Guo said that the French Military Attaché came this afternoon. He talked as follows. 1) He has just come back from North Africa, where the Free France have already formed 12 infantry divisions and 3 tank divisions, plus 2 divisions of mechanised troops. All the equipment was given to them by the United States. They have been very good, albeit not one airplane. 2) The French army originally wanted to take part attacking Italy, or landing in the South of France, but both Britain and the United States didn’t want them to take part. They dispatched them to go with the British 8th Army to Egypt, and to prepare to fight in the Balkans, He personally thought that this was to strengthen defence against the Soviet Union. 3) The main forces attacking Sicily are mostly Americans (7 divisions). There are only 3 British divisions and the German and Italian forces are roughly about 7 to 8 divisions. 4) The personnel the American Government sent to Iran for the most part didn’t understand the local environment, and achieved very little, so the Iranians were not so good to them. Many of them want to quit. Moreover, there are many bandits in Iran, and more than 500 military transport trucks have been stolen by them. The government sent a troop division to suppress them, but they were defeated by the bandits and it was said that more than 1,000 soldiers were captured. One can see the Iranian Government’s difficult situation. 5) The British soldiers were not very happy with the American soldiers’ arrogance. 6) He personally thought that because of mutual suspicion between the Americans and the Soviets, the Soviets would definitely not engage in an attack on Japan after the European war was over, in order to minimise British and American power. Then they would have no choice but to pay attention to the Soviet Union in Europe.