Tuesday, 4 November

The Belgian Ambassador, Baron Jules Guillaume and his wife, invited me for lunch at the Belgian Embassy at the southern bank. We happened to touch on the state of the Belgian air force. He said they completely joined up with the British army to fight in North Africa, and so on. The results were quite encouraging. Although many planes were destroyed in the Belgian war, many pilots were still available. I said I wondered if it was possible to encourage them to come to China to join the international air force. He said it was very possible but the Belgian Government needed to discuss it with the British Government as many of these pilots had joined the British air force. The Belgian Government would have to obtain approval from the British Government.

In the evening, Minister Guo Taiji and I discussed the amendment of the regulations for Ambassadors, Ministers and Consuls stationed abroad bringing their wives and the increase in the clothes purchase allowance. These matters, although trivial, were issues which take quite a lot of acumen to solve.