Wednesday, 17 May

Fine, sun

The Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia, Sergius, passed away the day before yesterday. Some Ambassadors in the Diplomatic Corps went to pay their respects on their own. (Probably they came from countries like Greece and Bulgaria which share the same religion.) Some of them sent condolences. The British Embassy dispatched Minister Balfour to attend. I talked with Counsellor Liu with regard to this, and we decided that it was better if we used my name and our Embassy to send condolences to the Soviet Government.

Today was the Norwegian National Day. The Norwegian Ambassador had a reception in the Norwegian Embassy. Mrs. Barclay, the British Embassy’s Third Class Secretary, is the daughter of my old friend in Hong Kong, Sir William Shenton[1]. We talked about the good old days which we missed very much. The Greek Ambassador Politis said he has just taken revenge on the Mexican Ambassador, because he is too talkative which means others had no chance to talk at all. Now the daughter of the Mexican Ambassador has arrived, she is much more talkative than her father. When she is here, her father has no chance of saying anything. The Greek Ambassador, Politis, said this when he and his daughter were here, and the Mexican Ambassador had no choice but to admit it. It was interesting.

[1] Sir William Shenton (1885-1967) was a famous Hong Kong solicitor.