Tuesday, 5 December
Snow, cold
I received a telegram from Minister Song that he has decided to come to Moscow by February next year. Therefore I made an appointment with Deputy Foreign Minister Lozovsky to meet at the Foreign Office at 3.00 in the afternoon and ask him to relay the telegram from Minister Song. He said he would report to Foreign Minister Molotov, and said that all the procedures could be handled by the Soviet Ambassador in Chongqing. Therefore I immediately cabled Minister Song.
The British broadcast said the enemy has reached Dushan. The government in Chongqing has declared that the war now is at its most difficult time in seven and half years. If Guiyang is lost, there are two roads open to Chongqing and Kunming. The war situation in our country is worrying.
The American side appointed the former Ambassador to Japan, Grew, as the Deputy Foreign Minister. He has long advocated leniency towards Japan. I was not sure if American policy regarding our side has changed or not.
From 11.00 until 1.30 I studied Russian. I discussed with teacher Mishina. She also thought that I knew quite a few words. What I was only lacking was practice. Therefore we decided that from next time onwards we would revise Bondars and Semeonoff’s.
At 6.30 Military Attaché Guo organised a farewell dinner for Shaozhou. The Diplomatic Corps and British and American reporters attended.
At 8.30 French representative Garreau organised a banquet at the French Embassy for Charles De Gaulle. I talked to the French Foreign Minister Bidault for a while. He could not speak much English, so we could not talk much.
Today (name unknown) looked consumed. It seems she has endless pain in her heart and she pretends to be happy. As a matter of fact, I am also the same.
Yesterday the Government announced that Minister Song will be acting President of the Executive Yuan. He is still concurrently the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The British side commented positively about it, and they thought that it meant a change in policy with regard to the Chinese Communist Party.