Tuesday, 23 November

Last night I had a very wonderful dream. I remembered once I talked to Monk Miaohui about Chen. I have said as follows. If a beggar suffered hunger and cold in the daytime, but dreamt of becoming wealthy in the evening, then he should be happier than a wealthy person who dreamt of hunger in the evening. Because when a beggar suffered, he could be comforted by having a good dream, while a wealthy person got great enjoyment but had a bad dream in the evening. Therefore, suffering in life is not necessarily bitter, and joyfulness in life is not real happiness. Whether one is happy or bitter depends on one’s heart. Miaohui strongly agreed. These past few nights I have had many good dreams; if I took them for real I thought they were fine. Whether one thing is genuine or not solely depends on one’s heart.

At 8.00 p.m. Minister Wilgress invited me to a banquet. The Swedish Minister Assarson secretly told me that he has heard President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Churchill will come to Moscow soon to meet Stalin. The British Ambassador Kerr and the American Ambassador Harriman have already come to welcome them. What made him most surprised was that President Roosevelt could be so accommodating, and come here after Hull. I said if they came I wouldn’t be very surprised because Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to meet Stalin and were requested to by British and Americans. Earlier Roosevelt didn’t want to come to Moscow in person because he feared that Americans wouldn’t completely understand about it and being friendly with the Soviet Union. If he came in person, American public opinion would criticise him for being too accommodating. But after Hull’s visit to the Soviet Union, the Americans understood the Soviet Union better. Also, based on what Hull told me, Stalin is preoccupied with military matters during this war period so he can’t leave the Soviet Union. When Stalin said earlier that he couldn’t leave the Soviet Union it was certainly not a pretext. Therefore Roosevelt wants to go to the Soviet Union, and Americans would show sympathy to him. (Assarson also said that he wouldn’t be transferred to Canada.) On returning to the Embassy, I reported to the Generalissimo.

I talked to Jingchen and I felt that this situation was quite likely. But for the reasons I thought as follows: 1) The meeting of the three foreign ministers was originally preparation for the meeting of the three heads. 2) With regard to the second war zone, although the Soviet side didn’t express great discontent, however as Eden said, the Soviet Union wasn’t greatly satisfied. So they could no longer be perfunctory towards the Soviet Union. 3) It was perhaps because of special incidents like Germany asking for peace. That was possible.