Wednesday, 2 August

Rain

I originally made an appointment to meet Ambassador Kerr today to ask him about the latest development in the Soviet-Polish Incident. But suddenly this morning he rang and said he has caught a cold and needed to stay in bed. He asked for the meeting to be changed to the day after tomorrow. Or perhaps he doesn’t want to see me now? So I dispatched Shaozhou to visit the French representative Garreau. Garreau was very nice and told everything he knew to Shaozhou and asked Shaozhou to relay it to me. The main contents were as follows. 1) Garreau said that because France was very concerned about the Soviet-Polish relationship, yesterday morning he went to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs and tried to discover the Soviet attitude. According to the Soviet side, they do not recognise the existence of the Polish exile government, therefore when three of them came here they came as individuals to go to Kohm via the Soviet Union. They will only have negotiation with the Polish Committee of National Liberation and what the Soviet Union permitted was only to allow them to take the route via the Soviet Union. As to how they negotiated with the Polish Committee of National Liberation, this is an internal Polish affair and the Soviet Union did not want to interfere. Today the Soviet Union suddenly announced that they would establish diplomatic relation with the Polish Committee of National Liberation and exchange envoys. From this we can see that what Garreau said about Soviet attitude was correct. 2) Based on the current situation, the only way to get Soviet recognition was the dissolution of the Polish exile government voluntarily and to merge with the Polish Committee of National Liberation. In this point it was not quite the same as Yugoslavia, because firstly the Soviet Union did not recognise Tito’s Government, and secondly it still did not break with Peter’s Government. The Soviet Union did not think that Peter’s Government was organised by anti-Soviet elements. 3) With regard to matters in Eastern Europe the Soviet Union adopted an absolutely stern attitude, and would not allow others to interfere. Recently the Red Army scored many major victories, all these made it sterner and caused Britain and the United States not to interfere. 4) The mistake of the Polish exile government was that it underestimated Soviet strength, and thought that it could not defeat Germany, and supposed Britain and the United States would manipulate Germany and Poland after they were defeated to counter the Soviet Union. This estimation puts Poland in a very bad position, but it has been self- inflicted. 5) Then the Polish army which was not in operation in the Near East split. Some advocated they should still cooperate with the Red Army and some advocated that they should obey General Anders. For those in the Polish army who fought in Italy, they were sent out to the Front as spearheads by Britain and the United States and experienced huge losses. When the war ends they will be left with little strength. I made a summary of his words and reported back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Turkish Ambassador said that Turkey has obeyed the proposals of the British and American side cutting off its economic and diplomatic relationships with Germany. He also felt very happy about it.

The Finnish President Ryti has resigned. The Finnish parliament elected Marshal Mannerheim to take his place. Probably Finland is preparing to withdraw from the war as Mr. Mannerheim recently stated that Finland should have peace talks with the Soviet Union, and in this kind of situation what they need is a military leader. If this is the case, the Axis line will collapse in the South and North. The German collapse is possible any time. Yesterday the progress of the American army was exceptionally speedy in Normandy. The British army also made progress in advancement. German morale seems to be subsiding.

Roosevelt asked Congress to promote Stillwell as full General. Now the American full generals at the moment are Chief of Staff Marshal, Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force Eisenhower, and Supreme Commander of Southwest Pacific Area MacArthur. Does it mean war in the Far East will have new developments?

The Philippine President Quezon passed away in the United States and his position has been taken over by Osmeña. Quezon was an exceptionally capable person and was in touch with our Party. Though I met him only several times and I could not say I knew him very well, he left me with a very good impression. It is a pity that he has passed away at this moment.