Wednesday, 20 October

At 11.30 a.m. I went to the American Embassy to visit American Secretary of State, Hull. We talked for about half an hour. His attitude was quite sincere and he told me about the conference situation. I then returned and cabled the Generalissimo.

Counsellor Liu visited the Czechoslovakian Ambassador. He seemed to be very optimistic and he reckoned that for the British and Americans themselves, there was no choice but to open a second war zone, because Britain and the United States didn’t expect the Germans would retreat so fast. If the Soviet army entered Eastern Europe first, it was against the wishes of Britain and the United States. Therefore, the fast retreat of the German army this time would push Britain and the United States to open a second war zone this year in West Europe.

This morning Military Attaché Guo visited the Canadian Military Attaché. He said he talked to British Lieutenant General Martel about what happened in the conference. Martel said that although the second war zone problem had been discussed in the conference, only the principle has been decided. For detailed planning in the future, experts will haveto be brought in to investigate. According to his observations, perhaps the first move would be from the Balkans. Military Attaché Guo also received orders from the Military Ministry that the Vice Military Attaché Li Xiuye (李修業) and Vice Military Attaché Xu Huansheng (徐煥昇) would be transferred back to the Ministry, and then a certain Zhou (name unclear) would be dispatched here to be Vice Military Attaché. The Military Attaché is not in harmony with the Vice Military Attaché here always creating difficulties for the Embassy. I am not in the right position to judge who is right or wrong. So I have kept warning that people in the Embassy should treat the Military Attaché and Commercial Attaché equally. For the things we can help with, we should always help. I believe we should treat them both like an older brother looking after the younger one. In case they needed guidance, we should provide it accordingly. For trivial things, I think we should not care too much. So even though we didn’t have enough rooms in the Embassy, I still used extra money to rent houses for personnel and their families. As to all the expenses, I never asked them to pay. But on the official side I was rather strict. I demanded that they had to report everything to me direct. Therefore, for the last six months we have got on well. In Chinese organisations, the most difficult part is personnel, and here in the Embassy we have the same problems.