Thursday, 23 December

At 2.00 in the afternoon, I went to the train station to see the Czechoslovakian President off. Molotov and others also went to the station to see him off. The army, the army musicians and filming people were all ready. After Benes made a brief speech, he shook hands with people, then he boarded the train especially arranged for him. His visit to the Soviet Union this time was quite successful. The Iranian and Greek Ambassadors, as well as Garreau all went to see him off. But there was noone from the British or American Embassies. This was too bad.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied to my telegram. It would dispatch Gou Zengchi as the Consul-General at Tashkent.

Counsellor Liu said that when his daughter’s two classmates, (Soviet secondary school students), visited him yesterday they both said the change in the Soviet national anthem had been forced by Britain and the United States. From this we know the Soviet people’s mood.