Tuesday, 1 February

Eighth day of the first lunar month

Cloud

At 7.00 p.m. I went with Secretary Gou and Attaché Hu to the Supreme Soviet Conference Hall at the Kremlin to sit in on their Joint Conference of two Houses. Many representatives of the Diplomatic Corps were present, because they paid great attention to today’s submissions. The meeting started at 7.00, and was chaired by the Soviet Union chairman Andreyev. The agenda was that various federates would set up their Defence Departments and Foreign Offices. Molotov made a report first: The main content was as follows. 1) The Red Army would bear the responsibility to fight theGerman army alone. Their capability was able to defeat Hitler’s Germany and to recover its territories. From this we can see how strong this country is. During wartime, they can still raise such a proposal. The Red Army is not easily copied by other countries. 2) With regard to various federates setting up their own Defence Departments, he said if it is the case, then each federate will have its own army. They can develop their military training and the Red Army will be even stronger. 3) With regard to various federates setting up their own Foreign Offices, Molotov said that in the past they have had their own departments for handling foreign affairs. Later for convenience sake, they passed the power to the Soviet Union. But now that diplomatic relationships have been formed, particularly during wartime, they have not only formed individual friendships with Britain, there are also alliances. This is also true with regard to the relationship towards the United States. The anti-Hitler’s Germany Alliance led by the three countries was formed, and the foundations for cooperation between small and large democratic states during and after the war have been laid. After the Moscow and Tehran Conferences, the Allies’ relationship has been strengthened, and the German collapse is imminent. The diplomatic affairs, and economic as well as cultural affairs in particular, are very complicated, it would be inconvenient if all of these were handled by the Soviet Union, so he had a proposal. The countries who gave speeches were namely: 1) representatives of Republics like Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Belorussia, Ukraine, Estonia, [unclear]. When the representative of the Baltic States gave his speech, he said that the expatriates in the United States absolutely could not represent the wishes of the country’s people, and pointed out the mistake of “the so-called American Ambassadors to the various states”. The Representative of the Ukraine said that West Ukraine should be returned to the Ukraine. He also said that it was ready to enter into an independent treaty with Czechoslovakia and Poland. The representative of [unclear] kept emphasising Finnish crimes. This was all enough to prove that the Soviet Union did it because it wanted to cope with the future international conference. (During the break, I spoke with the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs committee member and concurrently Law Minister, Pagov. I asked him about the international conference in the future, whether the various republics would dispatch representatives to join. He said certainly. 2) Secondly, this was to cope with the strange situation that the United States still recognised Ministers of the three Baltic States to implement their job responsibilities in Washington, and if these ministers were recalled by their individual governments the United States would have nothing to say. 3) Thirdly concerning the Polish boundary issue, the Soviet Union could ask the Ukraine and Belorussian Republics to deal with Poland. There is no need for the Soviet Union to talk to Britain and the United States. If they want to raise this issue again, then the Soviet Union could put it to the two republics, saying that it is a matter between Poland and them and the Soviet Union is of the same status as Britain and the United States so it is not appropriate to interfere. As for the representatives of those Republics whose countries shared boundaries with our country, they did not even utter a word. So this proves that the Soviet Union did it absolutely towards the western borders and Britain as well as the United States, and deliberately avoided our misunderstanding. During the break I also talked to Secretary Litvinov with regard to this matter. I asked him if this proposal was raised because the various states thought there was a need to change so had asked the Soviet Union to propose it. He said it was raised on the Soviet Union’s initiative, but before this it was discussed with representatives of the various states and their agreements obtained. I asked him if in the future the Soviet Union will have Ambassadors to the various states and if the various states will have ministers to the Soviet Union, what power these states would be entitled to, and if it would be similar to Britain towards its Dominions. He said with regard to power, it had still not been regulated, probably it was similar to the Dominions. These two motions were put to the vote at 11.00 by the Chairman, and the two houses voted respectively. All of the participants in the two houses raised their hands and passed the proposals unanimously. In the end Chairman Kalinin proposed widening the post of Chief Deputy Chairman, saying that his job responsibility was too heavy, in particular the wartime prize award ceremony and attending a variety of functions. He needed someone to share his jobs so he had a proposal. He proposed Shvernik to take this position. All raised their hands to pass the motion unanimously. Shvernik was the speaker of the Board of Nationality, like the head of the United States’ Senate. Appointing Shvernik as Chief Deputy Chairman imitates the American style of having the head of the Senate become the Vice President.

I also talked to the Czechoslovakian Ambassador, Fierlinger, about the Soviet-Polish Incident. He said that Czechoslovakian President Benes has talked in detail with the Polish Prime Minister Mikolajczyk. Mikolajczyk said that the Polish Government could not accept the Curzon Line as a basis for negotiations. On this issue, he said within the Polish Government opinion is completely unanimous. He also asked Benes whether the Red Army has been seriously weakened. What he meant was that if the Soviet and German armies fight for a long time, the casualties and loss in materials will be excessive. So the Soviet Union will have no spare strength to fight against Britain and the United States, then it will have no choice but to listen closely to the instructions from Britain and the United States. Benes thought that Mikolajczyk insisted on being foolish and was beyond salvation. He was quite disappointed. Mikolajczyk’s a fool to be like this. It is deeply lamentable. Ambassador Fierlinger also said as the siege at Leningrad is over, the Soviet navy can sail beyond Finland Bay and the Finnish situation could be a great emergency, and also the capital of Finland could be invaded.

Today the Soviet army has occupied Kinjseffr. It is only 8 miles from the old Estonian border, and it has advanced towards Narva.

Mr. Shapiro will be returning to the United States and I asked him to take letters to Lian Bai, Qian Tai, and Liu Kai (劉鍇)[1].

[1]Liu Kai (1906-1991) was Fu Bingchang’s student in Hong Kong. They came from the same secondary school. Later Liu Kai studied at Oxford University and became a diplomat.