Tuesday, 18 January

Dull

The British Government made a declaration last night and denied what Pravda had published, which was that certain important British met with the German Foreign Secretary, and tried to hold a peace talk unilaterally. The British Government said it was unfounded. London broadcasted this many times today.

The American Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, told the reporter that because of the Polish Government’s demand, the American Government has already instructed the American Ambassador to Moscow to tell the Soviet Government that the United States is willing to help the Soviet Union and Poland solve the border issue. But the Soviet Government still has not provided any acknowledgement.

In the morning, I visited the Canadian Minister, Wilgress. and we had a long talk. He said as follows: 1) With regard to the Soviet-Polish border issue, this was discussed at the Moscow Conference. Molotov said since the Polish Government was anti-Soviet, the Soviet Union could not negotiate with it. After Eden returned to Britain, he advised the Polish Government that it should take the initiative to reorganise its government and negotiate the border issue with the Soviet Union. The Polish Government seemed to agree, so when Eden attended the Tehran Conference, he raised this issue again. At the time, Stalin seemed to concentrate more on the military side. He said as follows. (a) The Polish Government has been anti-Soviet for a long time, ordered its personnel in Poland to be anti- Soviet on the one hand, and on the other hand it not only did not participate in the war against Germany, but also attacked anti-German guerrillas. (b) The Polish army did not take part in the war against Germany, merely stayed in the Near East, hoping that the Soviet army would fight to recapture their territorities, thus allowing them to retain their present strength so that they could work against the Soviet Union in the future. What could be more unjust than this? (c) With regard to the border issue the Soviet Union was willing to adopt a generous policy and base this on the Curzon line as the principle to solve it. At the time, Churchill promised to try to transfer the Polish army to Italy to fight. After Eden returned to Britain, again he advised the Polish Government it should relinquish its anti-Soviet stance, and asked it to order Polish personnel to cooperate with the Soviet Union against Germany, and immediately reorganised the Government. But the Soviet army has advanced so quickly that they have already reached the old Polish border, so the Polish Government immediately made a declaration, asking their personnel to refrain from being anti-Soviet. Unfortunately, certain words in the declaration irritated the Soviet Union. The part which said that the Polish Government wanted to enter into agreement with the Soviet Union, when the agreement is reached then the Polish should cooperate with the Soviet Union angered the latter most. The Soviet side interpreted this as if the agreement cannot be reached then the Poles will rise up against the Soviet Union. This further proved that anti-Soviet feelings have not subsided within the Polish Government. Therefore, the Russian Government made a declaration on 11 January, saying that although it would use the Curzon Line as the base to solve the problem, it criticised Poland severely. With regard to this point, and the Soviet Declaration quoting the Polish 1941 ballot of agreeing to return to the Soviet Union, Poland was greatly angered and wanted to refute. Eden tried his best to dissuade it from doing so. The Polish Government finally agreed to accept the declaration on the 15th of this month. The whole text was first delivered by Eden to the Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Government urged to accept it. This is what happened to Britain which tried its best to mediate the Soviet-Polish issue, but unfortunately the Soviet Union did not understand. As for the news which was published by the Soviet Union, saying that Britain dispatched people to discuss unilateral peace with the German Foreign Minister, the British Government has declined, and he himself absolutely could not believe that the British leaders would disregard public opinion, and betray other countries. If the Soviet Union try to do this to show they are unhappy with Britain, this will have a very bad effect, because the British are always proud of sticking to their promises, and if they are slandered for losing their credit and betraying friends, they will certainly not accept it, and the repercussions will be very serious. He was deeply worried about the Allies’ prospects. He also asked for my opinion. I said I have talked to my British friends that we should pay attention to the following points with regard to the Polish matter. 1) Leaders of the Polish Government are anti-Soviet, and their political ideas prone to dictatorship as well as anti-reactionary. They repeatedly say plainly that it is the responsibility of Poland to defend against the inroad of Red disaster on behalf of Western European civilisation. Therefore for their own interests Britain and the United States should also help Poland become a powerful country, thus accomplishing their mission. This type of thinking is obsolete, the British and American elites simply laughed at it. But there is still a tiny group of arch-conservative people in Britain and the United States who show sympathy. No wonder the Soviet side is suspicious and worried. If Britain is too supportive of Poland’s stance, then the Soviet reaction could be very bad, since the Soviets have a very suspicious mentality. 2) With regard to the border issue, Poland used force to occupy Soviet territory in 1921, now the Soviet Union is strong and it is natural that it would take over Polish territory. It is normal logic that aggressors usually suffer in the end. Now the Soviet Union wants to take back its lost territory and use the blood of the Soviet army to repel the German army. The Polish lands recovered will be returned to Poland, so there is no point in criticising the Soviet Union. If Britain and the United States still insist that the lands which were previously occupied by Poland and now recovered by the Soviet Union from Germany should also be returned to Poland, and the Czech lands which Poland and Germany collaborated to divide have to be returned to Poland as well, then it will naturally arouse Soviet suspicion that Britain and the United States want to use Poland to counter the Soviet Union. 3) After the collapse of the German army, it must be the Soviet Union army that occupies Poland. (I suspect) if Britain and the United States are willing to use force on behalf of Poland to expel the Soviet army, or they may want to break up with the Soviet Union for an even bitter Third World War on such a groundless request from Poland. 4) If we think from the standpoint of the Soviet Union then we will definitely be unable to tolerate such a situation. For the sake of justice, Britain and the United States should tell Poland the facts and not give it unrealistic hope. With regard to the news the Soviet newspapers published saying that Britain and Germany wanted to have unilateral peace talks, I deeply understand what happened in Britain and I am also certain that there will be absolutely no such thing. If the Soviet Union wanted to use this to warn Britain not to interfere in Poland, I suppose it has gone too far, as it has already had a bad influence on the country. Counsellor Liu’s daughter came back from school and said the whole school was talking about Britain and Germany having unilateral peace talks. They are disappointed with this British act of betrayal. They only said that it was forced by the Polish Government and we could understand what happened. Minister Wilgress strongly agreed, and said with regard to the Polish issue the United States has its difficulty, because there are more than seven million Polish people in America. They are concentrated in three places. 1) A certain district in New York, where the Polish inhabitants were probably escapees of the 1832 Revolution and mainly farmers. They were mainly Republicans. (New York was the Democrats’ base, but the Polish farmers in the district were mainly Republicans.) 2) Detroit. The Polish inhabitants were mainly latecomers. The workers in the Ford car factory are mainly Polish, their knowledge level is not high. 3) Cleveland. The Polish inhabitants are mainly factory workers. Therefore seven million Polish people are concentrated in three areas, and during elections they have great potential. This year is election year. It is questionable whether Roosevelt can afford to ignore them.

In the afternoon I visited Ambassador Garreau of the French Committee of National Liberation. He said as follows. 1) With regard to the exiled Polish Government in London, the Soviet Government is not only dissatisfied with its president and Commander in Chief, but also feels the same regarding Kote whom we assumed to be pro-Soviet. Garreau was a good friend of Kote’s, but when they talked about the Soviet-Polish issue, Kote also said that he could not accept the Curzon Line, because Poland could not abandon Vilna and Lvov. 2) With regard to Pravda reporting the secret meeting between Britain and Germany concerning a unilateral peace talk, he thought that it was not about the Polish Incident, because it was not worthy to use such an issue mean for this matter. He thought that it must be about the second war zone problem, as the British and Americans have not kept their promise. He said there was an incident which could prove that the Soviet Union did not believe in Britain and the United States’ so-called second war zone. It happened that the Soviet Union invited the Czechoslovakian President, Benes, to watch an opera, and during the interval, Garreau talked to Molotov about his son who is serving in the French air force in Britain and waiting for the opening of the second war zone to join the fight. Molotov asked when the second war zone would be opened. Garreau was very surprised, saying that with regard to this as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Molotov should know. Molotov deliberately replied loudly that yes, if they could keep their promise. Garreau said that after the reporting of the secret talks between Britain and Germany, the inference was bad. The American side also said that the Soviet Union wanted to have a unilateral peace talk with Germany too, so they initiated this rumour first.

The Central Broadcast Service stated that yesterday that three lots of Japanese planes attacked Chongqing and dropped bombs on the city, killing several people.  Chongqing is not [unclear] an important military stronghold, and we have to repay the Japanese debt of blood to us.

Last night I dreamt I saw Gui Fei bathing.