Thursday, 23 October

Chen Shaokuan(陳紹寬)[1] invited the American Ambassador to dine. Afterwards, I talked with his Naval Attaché MacHughes.

1) He said: a) the Japanese navy is far behind the United States, b) the firing range of the Japanese navy is about twelve and a half nautical miles, while those of the United States have reached fifteen, c) the aiming sights are not as good as those of the United States, d) the training is not as good as that of the United States, e) Japan has eight battleships while the United States has eleven. Therefore, the United States will make no more concessions to Japan.

2) The American military delegate, John Magruder, has deep-seated relations with President Roosevelt therefore he is quite powerful. As the United States dispatched him to China now, it really means that the United States wants to use its utmost strength to help China. I said as well as needing materials now, we also badly need manpower. For example, if the United States gave us heavy artillery, we really did not have the personnel to operate them. Some ten years ago when we were in Guangzhou, the Russian consultant, General Galen, and others were titled as consultants, but as a matter of fact they participated in the war. Therefore, I hoped that the majority of American consultants coming to China this time could directly participate in the war, and I asked him to relay this idea to General Magruder. He truly agreed with what I said. He also said there were so many people in the American Military Delegation, plus to serve this purpose the lower-ranking personnel were particularly numerous. He also told me that originally he did not intend to return to China, but the Naval Secretary, Franklin Knox, thought that the mission in China was so important that without him it was impossible. He was friendly with Magruder, and had quite deep personal relationships with the Naval Secretary and others. He invited me to have a detailed chat later on.

[1] Chen Shaokuan(1889-1969) was a Chinese naval leader from Fujian.