Wednesday, 1 March

Sleet

Today the Soviet Foreign Office published what happened concerning the peace talk with Finland with regard to truce terms. It said that this February a certain Swedish industrialist told the Soviet Minister to Sweden, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai, saying that the Finnish Government representative, Paasikivi, has arrived in Stockholm, and he would like to know the conditions for Finland’s withdrawal from the war. After consulting with the Soviet Government, Minister Kollontai replied that the Soviet Government had no special reason to trust Finland, but for the sake of peace, it was still willing to negotiate with its Government. On 16 February Representative Paasikivi met with Minister Kollontai. He said to him that he has been ordered by the Finnish Government to ask the Soviet Union about truce conditions. The second time Minister Kollontai met Representative Paasikivi, she gave the Soviet Union’s six point reply. They were as follows: 1) Finland should sever its ties with Germany immediately, and arrest the German army. If Finland thinks its power is insufficient to arrest the German army, the Soviet Union can dispatch its land and air forces to help. 2) Resume the 1940 Soviet-Finnish treaty, and the Finnish army retreats back to its own territory. 3) Immediately release Soviet and Allied captives and people who are imprisoned in the Finnish concentration camps, as well as those who are forced to do hard labour. 4) The demobilisation of the Finnish army, whether it is partial or full should be negotiated in Moscow. 5) The loss incurred by Finland on the Soviet Union should be negotiated in Moscow. 6) With regard to the Petsamo area issue, this should also be decided in Moscow. She also informed Representative Paasikivi if the Finnish Government accepts these terms, it can dispatch representatives to Moscow to start negotiation. With regard to the rumour that the Soviet Union demanded Finland to surrender unconditionally and asked for the occupation of the Finnish capital and cities, (as the newspapers said) these are ill-founded. After the publication of all these terms, the Diplomatic Corps generally thought that they were very generous and that Finland should accept them. The Canadian correspondent Professor [name given in Chinese as Daifeisi] asked my opinion, and I replied that the terms were quite generous. He then cabled the various newspapers in Canada. Probably the most difficult thing for Finland is the issue of arresting the German army because it numbers 100,000. Finland must use force to arrest them, which would mean war within Finland would be inevitable, even so it is better than to continue this war where victory is impossible. This move by the Soviet Union has surely the brightest purpose, because if Finland retreats from the Axis, Germany will not only lose 100,000 people, it will also be unable to stay in Norway and have no choice but to leave. At the same time, small states in Middle and Eastern Europe will feel that the terms offered are not too harsh, then Germany’s past propaganda power will lose its power, and the small states will ask for peace from the Allies one by one following Finland. Although Germany still has great influence on military and political aspects, its collapse is not impossible. Some Finnish newspapers have complained that the terms are too harsh but this is just the attitude of those who want to bargain. In the past few days the Finnish Government and Parliament has had many secret meetings and announced the terms, so it seems that the Finnish Government wants to accept it.

The American navy captured the biggest Admiralty Island yesterday and Japanese army resistance was quite weak. Also the Japanese Government has changed many personnel. This is further proof that the enemy has suffered loss in the Pacific.

At 11.45 this morning I studied Russian. The teacher has asked me to change the times to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

At 7.00 p.m., the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation had their fifth representative Conference at the small hall in the Kremlin. The Diplomatic Corps were invited to visit the conference. I went with Counsellor Liu and Attaché Hu. (She came as a reporter).  They talked about the budget, so people in the Diplomatic Corps were disinterested. The conference ended at 9.00. Ambassador Kerr left earlier without waiting for the end. But I and Ambassador Harriman and others waited until the end and then left.

Today it was raining. At 10.30 the water from the snow leaked into my study room. It was a substantial leakage but luckily we discovered it early, otherwise it would have been disastrous.