Thursday, 7 February

I learnt Italian on my own.

I wrote to Bingkun and Bingyi, telling them I also intended to return and live in Hong Kong. I also replied to Huiming, Jinpei, Hanyuan.

Chengyong came, saying that the matter for the Shanglong restaurant had been settled and that he would immediately rent to Miss Yang. The monthly rent would be 75,000 francs. And he had received 900,000 francs for rent of one year and 500,000 deposit first, which added to 1,400,000 francs in total. As for the stock, that would be calculated accordingly. Chengyong would take fifty per cent, twenty-five per cent of Guo Defeng’s (郭德峰) fifty per cent would be taken by me. That Chengyong would have fifty per cent of shares, Guo twenty-five per cent, and twenty-five per cent for me. Based on the business of last year for calculation, we could make a profit of 180,000 francs. After deducting the rent, we could make some 100,000 francs. For my twenty-five per cent, I could get 25,000 francs. This was not insignificant to me.

The British King, George VI, died at his home at Sandringham House yesterday morning. His eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was chosen by the Accession Council of 300 members which met at St. James’s Palace in London at five in the afternoon yesterday as the Queen of the British Empire, and she would be named Elizabeth II. George VI was an honest and discreet person, and was quite friendly. He liked farming. When the General Assembly of the United Nations was founded in London in 1946 I met him twice. Though he did not say much, I found he was sincere in his attitude. (He also remembered me. Therefore, in the mid of that year he asked Ambassador Gu Weijun face-to-face whether our country would send me as the Ambassador to Britain.) No wonder he was loved and supported by his people. His death was not merely the loss of the British.