Tuesday, 9 March

Fourth day of the second lunar month

At noon, I presented my credentials. The ceremony was quite brief. At 11.45 the Soviet Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director of Communications, F.F. Molochkov, came in a Government car to the National Hotel to welcome me. I went with Counsellor Chen Ding and Military Attaché Guo, Commercial Attaché Hu Shijie, and Secretaries Chen Daichu, Gou Zengqi, and Attaché Liu in several cars to the Kremlin. Outside the Kremlin special security cars were waiting for us, the Director of Communication talked to them. The security cars went first to lead us to Chairman Kalinin’s office. Bodyguards were waiting for us outside, and took us and the Director of Communication to take the lift up to the 3rd floor. The other people went upstairs by the stairs. I waited for them, then the Director of Communication led us to an ante-room of the Chairman’s office. The Chief Aide of the Chairman received us and took us to the sitting room. It was not big and the set-up was simple compared with those of the Foreign Affairs Soviet Commissar Molotov. The Chairman came out of his office and came to shake my hand. I said I was dispatched here by my Government as Ambassador to your country, come to present my credentials, and was very honoured. Now I respectfully forwarded the credentials by Chairman Lin Sen of our country, relayed greetings on behalf of Chairman Lin to Chairman Kalinin, and wished my country prosperity. I then handed the credentials to Chairman Kalinin. After Chairman Kalinin received the credentials he said he was extremely happy to welcome me and would like to thank me for the greetings from Chairman Lin. He gave the credentials to the Vice Foreign Minister V.G. Dekanozov, and then I introduced the personnel from our Embassy who accompanied me to the Chairman The Chairman also introduced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister and his Secretary General to me.

Then he invited me to go to his office. His office was quite spacious. Its set-up was similar to Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs Molotov’s. The room was oblong and had a long conference table at one side of the room. At the other end of the room there was only the chairman’s office table, and then two sofas. I and the Vice Foreign Minister sat there respectively. Translator Wasilkov took a chair and sat nearby. Chairman Kalinin was quite friendly and he said China and Russia were always friendly. He said he was pleased with my arrival. He asked me if it was the first time I had been to the Soviet Union. I said I came here in 1938, but it was only a brief stay.

I also said the Generalissimo asked me to congratulate the Red Army’s recent victory. Kalinin replied that although they had scored the victory, its enemy, Germany, was still very strong in terms of military power. In this sense the Soviet Union still faced difficulty, so Mr. Stalin repeatedly warned the people they should not be complacent over a small victory. I told him that to win and not be smug was the best policy. Chairman Kalinin said that both the Soviet Union and China had no territorial ambitions, therefore we should be friendly to each other. I replied that because of historical and geographical reasons, China and the Soviet Union should cooperate in a friendly manner as Dr Sun Yat-sen and Mr. Lenin had decided the mutual-friendly policy. We, as KMT members, always took this as the most important teaching. Generalissimo Chiang also followed Dr Sun Yat-sen ‘s policy after his death and always advocated that we should be friendly with the Soviet Union. We hoped that not only during the war, as we shared blood because of anti-aggression, but also even after the war, we should work hand-in hand to maintain world peace and build for the future. And at the beginning of our War of Resistance, we were really thankful for the Soviet Union’s help. Chairman Kalinin said he was in full agreement with what I said. He confessed that at the moment the Soviet Union was unable to give much assistance to the Chinese War of Resistance efforts but this was not due to unwillingness. The main reason was that the Soviet Union needed to focus on the invasion of Germany on inadequate resources. If in the future they had spare power they would certainly help China, and in the future both countries should cooperate. We talked for about half an hour and then we went outside the sitting room. Photographers and filmmakers were all ready. They took photos and captured the moments that I and Chairman Kalinin smiled and talked. After saying goodbye I and my colleagues left and were accompanied by Molochkov, Director of Communication, back to the hotel. I prepared some champagne and snacks in my room and asked them to stay a little while to have a chat. At the same time I talked about the Embassy’s residence. He said it was not easy to find another Ambassador’s residence at Kuibyshev, but would be easier to rent a staff residence in Moscow. I sent a telegram to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately.

In the evening I went to see the best-known new play called Front. The writer was a new literature writer Alexander Korneichuk. It described senior officers who were corrupt and not willing to gain new knowledge. It was suspected that it referred to Marshal Kliment E. Voroshilov. But in this deadly war, for the writer to depict the corruption of the army like this he must have his reasons. I thought they were trying to warn a certain officer or a certain section of the officers. This was reasonable.