Tuesday, 21 November

Dull, cold

I studied Russian from 11.00 until 12.45.

Soviet newspapers have published the reshuffle of the senior officials in our Central Government, saying that Chen Cheng is the Minister of Defence (concurrently Chief of the General Staff), Zhang Lisheng (張厲生)[1] transferred to be in charge of internal politics, T.V. Song remaining in the Foreign Ministry and concurrently the Nationalist Government Commmittee. The Minister of Finance Yu Hongjun. The Minister of Education Zhu Jiahua. As for Party headquarters, Chen Lifu transferred to the Ministry of Organisation, Wang Shijie to the Ministry of Propaganda and Liang Hancao to the Ministry for Overseas. These are the biggest changes since the War of Resistance. If the office of aides is attempting to concentrate great power on its hand as before, and not putting its people in various posts, and not being partial in promotion and punishment, I will be very relieved for the future of our country.

At 1.00 in the afternoon the Canadian Minister Wilgress visited me and we talked for over two hours. He has long been pro-Soviet and always justly criticised the policies of Churchill and always showed understanding towards the Soviet Union, because his wife was a Russian, and Canadian policy is in disagreement with imperialist aggression. He is very progressive in his ideas, and erudite. So his opinions are always with great insight. We got along extremely well, and we could talk to each other honestly. But today Wilgress is also quite pessimistic towards the Soviet Union and the world situation. What he said was as follows: 1) Though Churchill and Eden told him delightedly that they achieved quite a lot in this visit to Moscow, he observed from their facial expressions that it seemed to be a great failure. Both sides held great differences and could not reach an understanding. Therefore in the first place when the Soviet Union held a banquet in the diplomatic hostel to welcome Churchill and Eden, Stalin, Molotov and others and Churchill and Eden of the British side were in great happiness and intimacy. Later during the reception at the Kremlin Palace, both sides were wordless which seemed to be endless anxiety. In retrospect, there must have been some reason. 2) Probably Churchill and Eden thought that with regard to the Polish problem the Soviet side was just doing as it pleased, and they were not without suspicion. Because the Soviet Union previously requested to using the Curzon line to be the boundary, and was against anti-Soviet elements to organise Polish Government. These were reasonable and British and American public opinions naturally agreed with these. But it seemed to be that the Soviet Union took further advance, insisting on setting up a puppet which was absolutely submissive. It was not only unwilling to allow enlightened Polish elements to join, but also for those personnel who were not of its satisfaction, like Witos, were dismissed. Even for Morawski who had no firm inclination or opinion the Soviet Union started to distrust him, and it was eager to replace him with a former famous Communist who did things by evil means, Beyrut, who would be in charge. At the same time the Soviet Union wanted to expand the Polish West boundary which was made by it to the German Oder river of Germany. In other words, Soviet Union wanted to expand its territory to the Oder River. This certainly made Churchill and Eden scared. 3) On returning to Britain, Churchill and Eden went to France immediately and called for the establishment of an alliance of Western Europe in order to cope with the Soviet Union. 4) Now the Soviet Union seemed to move one step forward, and directly interfered in Romania by dispatching Vishinski on its own initiative to manage the affairs of Romania. With regard to Bulgaria the Soviet Union forced it to join with Yugoslavia to form a federation. Even towards Czechoslovakia it started to take action. Recently important members of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party published articles, advocating Czechoslovakia should be divided into three autonomous areas, and each area would be managed by a committee, and on these committees Communists should take the majority. This type of saying published here was certainly at the instigation of the Soviet Union. From this one could know that even Dr. Benes who strongly advocated a pro-Soviet stance was not tolerated. Added to this was the Soviet attack on the Iranian Government, and its refusal to revive its diplomatic relations with Switzerland, as well as declining the invitation of the United States for attending the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. This all made the British and American sides view this as moves to push aggressive policies. 5) People in the American Government, such as Roosevelt, Hull and others, have been alerted to the Soviet Union and seem to be making preparation. Roosevelt found it even more difficult to propose continuation of the Lend-lease Act because the American side felt that after this war certainly Britain will need American capital and materials to help its rejuvenation and rebuilding. But the Soviet Union also needs them. The policy of Roosevelt is wanting to prolong the Lend-lease Act after the war with the hope of aiding rebuilding. But if he is suspicious towards the Soviet Union there is no need to benefit the enemy. At this moment Americans are still not turning to the extent of being anti-Soviet, but if the condition doesn’t improve, in the future they will become anti-Soviet. 6) The Canadian Government and Canadians have long shown friendliness to the Soviet Union but recently public opinion seems to have turned to be suspicious of the acts of the Soviet Union. 7) Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin’s conference was still not optimistic, because Roosevelt and Churchill could not come to Moscow absolutely, so now we see if Stalin can come to Britain, or if he can meet at a neutral place in the Mediterranean for a conference. 8) The Greek Ambassador, Politis, told him that he felt very worried about the alliance of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

At 5.00 in the afternoon I went to see the French representative Garreau. His maid is very lively and attractive. French people are very romantic, and it is apparent everywhere. I talked with him for one and a half years. He was very talkative and straightforward. He said as follows: 1) Britain wanted to form a western European alliance to cope with the Soviet Union. Therefore though Smuts and others openly claim that France is only a second-class country, in less than one week’s time, Churchill and Eden will come to Paris personally and recognise France as a big power. Their intention is of course to make use of France. But France has its own independent policy. Therefore after Churchill left Paris, De Gaulle immediately showed that he wanted to come to Moscow to meet Stalin. Stalin immediately replied that he was welcome. Now the situation that Britain and the United States join together to oppose the Slavic group of the Soviet Union has been formed. France is in the midst of the two groups and holds the balance of power. Also the position of France got the support of the small countries which were unwilling to be controlled by the big countries. Therefore, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union could not disrespect the opinion of France. Since France is in such an advantageous position, it could use its position to alleviate the conflicts of both sides. Now De Gaulle comes to Moscow, it is not only concerning France itself, it is also about a great relationship with the future of the world. 2) The defeat of France is because it wanted to hold the principle of justice and observe duty to Poland. On the contrary, the American side sold ammunitions to Japan generously. In the last resort when Vietnam asked the United States for help with a small number of airplanes to resist the Japanese, the United States declined in firm language, but at the same time unceasingly sold airplanes to Japan so that they could be used in the aggressive war. In this regard the United States had no morality at all. Now, on the American side, it always talked highly about the principle of political morality. The so-called Atlantic Charter, its elaboration was already unclear, when it was put into use the United States did not observe it, and also it was hard to observe it. For the British side, its diplomacy constantly changed. Its diplomacy only concerned with day-to-day affairs, and it would certainly be unable to yield good results. Britain used it to cope with the Soviet one which had consistent policies and definite plans and was doomed to fail. 3) The Soviet policy was to exclude all anti-Soviet force in Europe, and form a Slavic coalition. After this war, the Soviet Union has been successful in these two aspects. 4) Britain and the United States are now inclined to jingoistic policies, which are very dangerous. No matter how strong a country is, if the world can be united, the united power will be stronger than the power of one country, therefore the interests of small countries cannot be disrespected. Based on what he said Garreau seemed to advocate using the conflicts of the two sides to increase France’s importance and to hope to unite all the smaller countries to maintain its own security and position, and at the time express discontent towards Britain and the United States. I think that this type of policy is very dangerous to France, but I was not in the right position to express any opinion.

Today marked the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian fabulist Ivan Andreyevich Krylov, the Soviet Government arranged for the Union of Soviet Writers to hold a memorial ceremony in the Grand Theatre. It invited the Diplomatic Corps to join. The Prime Minister and concurrently Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia, I.Sabasich, was also present. Tikhenov talked about the life of Krylov and commented on his works. One and a half hours later, there was a recital by some writers. After the break, there was a play with only one scene Tpok Dorkau( U.A.Kpviob), actor I.U. Bonkob who played the impersonating teacher and actor T.C. Beureba who played the servant woman (his lover) Diana were both good. In the second performance session H.A. Qsyxob’s solo was quite good. Though she was old and fat, her voice was high and wonderful. B.A. Daberjoba was quite young and slim and her soprano voice was high too. However, her voice was not as good as Qsyxob’s. Tatypun (leuor) and the puppet play was also fine.

Many newspapers here use the method of “reprinting news from London” to report the alliance movement in Western Europe. They strongly criticised it and deemed it as pointing to the Soviet Union. They also quoted the French newspaper France Tireur that the Moscow side is against this Western Europe alliance because it aroused the memory of the 1919 alliance policy. From this we can see what Soviet Union thinks.

The British broadcast had good comments about the change in our government. The Times editorial praised the Generalissimo for injecting new blood and tried to adopt a more liberal and democratic policy. Towards Chen Cheng, Zhu Jiahua and Wang Shijie the editorial was particularly positive.  

[1] Zhang Lisheng (1900-1971) studied in France and was a senior official in the Nationalist Government.