Tuesday, 18 July
Fine, sun
At 11.00 Canadian Ambassador Wilgress visited me, and brought with him a reply letter from the Canadian Prime Minister, King, relaying his regard for my praise of his speech in Britain. When Wilgress mentioned the Sino-Soviet relationship he was quite worried, I tried to explain it to him.
The current issue of War and the Labour Class published an article that discussed Chinese warfare in detail. Its tone is biased towards the Chinese Communist Party, and its view is that the Central Army did not fight. It only said that the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army fought the Japanese. It also said that the Japanese army did not attack the Central Army and they only fought the Armies of the Chinese Communist Party. All these remarks are ridiculous. I would like to ask in the past seven years who has suffered loss? For the recent battles at Luoyang, Changsha and Hengyang, I wonder whether the Communist army fought in all of them? These types of remarks which totally disregard facts and turn right from wrong upside down are the traditional Soviet style of doing things. It is even more unreasonable that it compared the war in China with Yugoslavia. According to the British report, the German army only had twelve divisions in Yugoslavia. The so-called wars never had more than 10,000 casualties. They were not the counterpart of China as in every battle in the Chinese battlefield the casualties of both sides have been tens of thousands. With regard to the remarks that the Allies incessantly sent in aid to China, I thought it was absolutely devoid of good faith. In the past few years, the Soviet Union has provided no aid and the allocation of materials from American aid to China, it should know well. It deliberately made this remark to blame us. If these remarks reach China, they will certainly arouse bad feelings. It also mentioned the arrest of Wu Kaishi (吳開先)[1] by Japan in Shanghai and his surrender to Wang Jingwei’s Nationalist Government. Last year he was instructed by Japan to go to Chongqing and took with him the conditions for peace talks. That the Japanese attempted to have peace talks with China and divide China seems to be the facts. Also, in the last paragraph, it said that the rejuvenation of China should depend on its own. I think it is true. There is plenty of room for internal reforms in China. People in China also think that our politics are not perfect, so we also shout loudly for reforms. But what we expect from other countries is that even though they do not help us, they should abstain from stirring internal chaos. In the evening I translated this article with Shaozhou and made some editing. We cabled almost the full text to the Foreign Ministry.
Qian Tai asked the newly-appointed Belgian Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Le Ghait, to bring me a letter, saying the Japanese have launched a massive attack, yet our country dispatched starved soldiers to counter them. According to the Reuters’ reports, in one division almost half of the soldiers fled. Though it might be exaggerated, it is not total fabrication. British and American papers are increasingly criticising us. Their criticisms can be categorised as follows:
1) China is not worthy to be one of the Four Big Powers.
2) China has tendencies of dictatorship and Fascism.
3) Inflation.
4) Suppressed Chinese Communist Party. (Leftist newspapers are particularly supportive to the Chinese Communist Party, saying that it is peasant’s progressive party and not Communist.)
5) Soldiers cannot fight.
Earlier the British did not dare to say this for fear the Americans would be unwilling to see it. But after the Americans started to criticise, the British followed. (The first article was by Pearl Buck, in Life last May.). They orchestrated with each other. The reasons are as follows:
1) China is too harsh in censoring news, which arouses ill-feelings among reporters. (K.C. quarrelled with the reporters of New Chronicle.)
2) The disillusionment of Americans after they came to China.
- a) They depicted China as a democratic state, but the fact was not the same as the description.
- b) Lives in America are very comfortable, but after they arrived in China they suffered. They certainly complained.
- c) Missionaries used one US$ to exchange for 40 Fabi, but the amount was not enough to buy half a tube of toothpaste.
They said that China cheated them. Because of personal unhappiness, they wrote back home and made complaints all the time. Also, the visit of Madame Chiang to the United States is also one of the reasons for stirring up noise. Here they also re-published many of the Soviet Union criticisms. The latest one was that China over seven years kept asking for assistance, but it did not build up its basic military industry. Also, several hundred thousand troops were not fighting the Japanese but only on surveillance of the Chinese Communist Party, in particular were particular, their usual sayings. Since China became one of the Four Powers, many people and countries became envious, and the Chinese Communist Party took the time to propagate, adding some personal resonance, then our country became everybody’s target for accusation. T.V. Song had a difference of opinion with Chiang Kaishek, and resigned his post as director of the Bank of China (C.D.S has also left and I heard that it was given to the Embassy.) T.V. Song has moved from Yiyuan. The shortage of materials in [unclear] is worse than in Chongqing. Official matters are thorny. I (Qian Tai) was instructed to go there. I had no choice but to go. (Written by FBC 29 June 1944).
The American army has occupied St. Lo today. The American side also announced that when they occupied Saipan Island, only 500 out of 20,000 Japanese soldiers were captured because of wounds, the rest all died during the fighting. The Japanese side also announced that in the Saipan battle, one naval lieutenant general, one general, one major general, one division commander and the whole army died. The American side announced that the American casualties and those missing totalled more than 3,500 men, and more than 11,000 wounded. As an enemy Japan is fiercer than Germany. The Japanese side also announced the replacement of many of their naval commanders, and this must be the result of the defeat. The Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of the training section and the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army have all been replaced. Probably it is because of changing military plans. The Japanese side seems to understand that the military situation is serious and they have little hope.
[1] Wu Kaishi (1899-1990) was a Nationalist official.