Tuesday, 4 April

This morning I heard the British broadcast saying that with regard to reporting the Xinjiang-Mongolia issue in Soviet newspapers, Chongqing formally declared that what they published was contrary to the facts.

This morning I received a telegram from Minister Song. It said that on the 31 March Ambassador Panyushkin met with Minister Song, declaring on behalf of the Soviet Government that if in the future, the Xinjiang army undertakes any similar action in offending the border of the Mongolian People’s Republic, then the Soviet Government will work according to the mutual help pact which was signed between the Soviet Union and Mongolian People’s Republic on 12 March 1936. This states that in order to guarantee the safety of the Mongolian People’s Republic’s territory, it has no choice but to provide it with any assistance and support needed. On 3 this month, Minister Song met with Ambassador Panyushkin and replied as follows: According to the report based on concrete fact, our troops stationed in Xinjiang purged rebels with the A’ertaiwei mountainous area in Xinjiang province (It was 75 kilometres from the border of Outer Mongolia and Xinjiang.), our side has never used any planes. From 11  to 20 March all the planes which made reconnaissance and shot as well as bombarded our planes had five-coloured red star insignias. We have informed you (Ambassador Panyushkin) about this repeatedly. According to the regulation of the fifth clause of the agreement outline between China and the Soviet Union with regard to solving pending cases, the Soviet Government recognises that Outer Mongolia is absolutely part of the territory of China, and will respect Chinese sovereignty over the said territory. On 12 March 1936, the Soviet Union came into an agreement with the so-called Mongolian People’s Republic, the Chinese Government filed a protest against the Soviet Union on 7 April the same year. The People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of your country (Soviet Union Litvinov in his reply on 8 April was that he raised no objection with regard to the agreement between China and the Soviet Union in 1924 which reaffirmed that the agreement, from the Soviet Union side, is still valid and will be the same in the future, and Mongolia is a part of Chinese territory. So the agreement on 12 March 1936 is not valid towards China. The Chinese Government and its people will absolutely not recognise it. At the end, Minister Song also told Ambassador Panyushkin again that our Central Army has cabled to instruct Xinjiang troops not to enter Outer Mongolian territory, and this instruction is still valid now, then what the Soviet Government formally said was more serious than it declared. I have thought about it again and again, it seems the Soviet Union is strongly dissatisfied with Xinjiang authority. When things in Xinjiang changed a lot the year before last, I also strongly advocated that with regard to the Soviet side we shouldn’t make it harbour ill feelings which could lead to bad results. In the past few years the Central Government has seemed to be perfunctory towards the Xinjiang authority, which has made the Soviet Union assume that our Central Government is as anti-Soviet as the Xinjiang authority, this naturally has had a disastrous result. Now our country is in great difficulty, if it is not tolerant there will no hope for rejuvenation. If Sheng Shicai is patriotic, he should know that he shouldn’t linger on, and for the sake of himself and the country, he should leave. A gentleman finds it easy to retreat and difficult to advance, I always bear this in my mind as a golden doctrine. Others may not feel the same way, and I feel sorry for them.