Tuesday, 2 September

In the morning, Qian Tai arrived in Chungking. He said it would be best if he was not required to take up the post as Administrative Deputy Minister. I said it would be raised in the Executive Yuan meeting and passed so he could not decline. Therefore, I asked him to drop such an idea.

The Highest National Defense Conference passed that, from yesterday onwards, we would work a full-time schedule. I arrived at the office at 7.30. Wu Qingpei would be sent to the Chicago Consulate as a second-class trainee so that he could study in the United States. Second Sister cabled, asking me to prepare the passport before 15 October. Section Chief Qu did not think it was feasible as we had to ask the Chinese Ambassador to the United States to cable the capital of the United States especially for a trainee. I thought so too, and I cabled a reply to her to put it later. It is really difficult to do things for others. Asking for President H.H. Kung’s agreement to assist with the remittances to Sun Fo’s daughter was already a difficult task; Sun Fo even said the procedure was so slow that he was really unhappy. It was very difficult to make others feel satisfied. No wonder Wang Chonghui said coping with personnel matters was more challenging than all the other things.

At noon, I returned to the hostel. At 3.00 p.m. Feng Hanshu came from Dushiqiao and brought with him a letter from Wu Shangying, saying the Yuan meeting could not catch up with the schedule to be held on 6 October, therefore the date was changed to 10 October, and Chen Changheng would be the Chair. From half-past three to half-past six, I was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the evening, Guo Taiji invited Qian Tai to dinner. After that I went with Qian Tai to Wang Chonghui’s. Wang Chonghui thought that the Hong Kong Government would not oppose Phillip Tyau. He said it was Hang Liwu who had another idea and wanted to be the Consul-General. He also said Hang Liwu was too toady to the British Ambassador, and he always leaked news to him. My impression of Hang Liwu was quite good and I thought he might not want to take this post, as the status of Consul-General was not the same as Deputy Minister. It seemed to me that Hang Liwu had been the Deputy Minister of a certain Ministry. Wang Chonghui said that he had never been a Deputy Minister. Nowadays the hearts of people are not like those in the past, perhaps I view people from a perspective of innate goodness which is not right, but Wang Chonghui’s perspective of innate evilness is also up to the standard of moderation.