Thursday, 26 October

Dull, rain

I studied Russian from 11.00 to 1.30 in the afternoon.

Today Pravda reprinted Smedley’s article on the recent development of China which she published in the United States. The article itself was ridiculous. The overall idea of the article was that the Central Government has lost the confidence of the people and their support and that it should be overthrown and replaced with a democratic government who would cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party. It also advocated Allied countries should supply arms directly to the Chinese Communist Party. Smedley is a well-known American Communist. Everybody knows about it. It is no wonder that she spoke like this. There is freedom of speech for American newspapers. They can publish the opinion of any inclination (The majority published articles which were sympathetic to the Chinese Government. This type of article with the opposing view is a rarity. Therefore the overall American public opinion was unaffected.) But it is not the case in the Soviet Union. Every word is Stalin’s opinion. Now on this aspect China has worked extremely hard and striven for Sino-Soviet friendship. Also solving the Xinjiang Incident and dispatching Minister Song to the Soviet Union have all proved that China is sincere. Nevertheless the Soviet side not only has a slight positive sign, on the contrary it has such malicious expression, no wonder the British and American people are still very suspicious and they believe deeply that after this war one day they will join together to fight against the Soviet Union. When I think of this I feel very sad. Perhaps the sin of human beings will end after a massive massacre. Sigh.

In the evening we had supper at the Embassy and bid farewell to Mr. Hubbell as well as celebrating the birthday of Attaché Hu. I only asked (name unknown) to accompany. I talked to Hubbell in great detail about the local reforms and their achievements after the Central Government relocating to Sichuan, as well as the necessity of Sino-American cooperation. This was so that when he is back in the United States he has the information to talk positively about China when he meets with Roosevelt and Nelson and others. He said he was unhappy with Britain and unable to trust the Soviet Union either. Because he would leave soon he told me frankly what he thought.

The American side announced the victory of the American navy over the Japanese navy in the Philippines. They said that in the past three days they have defeated three big groups of the Japanese navy, sunk and destroyed more than 25 enemy ships. This is the heaviest loss for the enemy since the battles began. The war seems to be continuing, and that the Japanese navy seemed to have its own reason for taking this final bet, for it could no longer leave more than 200,000 of their troops in the Philippines unattended. Japanese tactics seemed to be alright, because if they could concentrate two big navy groups at Leyte Island, and the American navy there was not too strong, the Japanese estimated that they could destroy the American navy there. And then, if they used naval artillery to attack the American landing troops, the Japanese soldiers could attack them from the land, there then would be a possibility that they could destroy the American army. As a matter of fact the American navy was so powerful that it was beyond the enemy’s estimation. They used a smaller number of fleets to fight with the bigger group of the Japanese navy, and still they managed to defeat the latter. The Japanese suffered a terrible blow. Although the enemy tried to cheat its own people by saying that they won the war, the progress of the American army in the Philippine Islands has been smooth and speedy. The departure of the Japanese navy meant it was unable to attain its aim. Any Japanese with intelligence should realise that their navy has been defeated.