Wednesday, 21 October

General Lee Beom-seok (李範奭),[1] Cheolgi (鐵驥), called with Minister Jun Gyu-hong (全奎弘) and had tea with us. General Lee was the first prime minister of South Korea for over five years and he later served in Taipei as the first Korean ambassador. He has led a very interesting life. When young he was one of the commanders of the Korean forces helped by the Russians to fight against the Japanese in the border areas between Russia, Korea and China. When a treaty was concluded by Karakhan with the Japanese in 1924 the Korean Army was to be disbanded. Lee thought that he had been betrayed by the Russians, and so he refused to disband his division, while the other four commanders obeyed. He was therefore attacked.  His division finally disbanded and he received a wound in his forehead. He escaped to China after five years in Soviet Russia. He studied and graduated at the Yunnan Military Academy, has been to all parts of China, served under Yang Hucheng, Han Fuju and Ma Zhanshan (馬占山)[2] and was at the third phase of the training corps. Altogether he has lived for twenty-seven years in China. He speaks Chinese better than any one and his idioms and literary quotations are perfect. Recently he was sent on a special mission to the United States and is just on his way home. He thinks the negotiations in Korea will drag on but there would not be any resumption of hostilities. In his opinion, not only the Communists but the Americans also want to gain time. Only the Republic of Korea did not. He is convinced that the third world war will materialize in three years’ time. He said he had spoken to China a great deal as he was in a much better position to speak for us, and further, he has been approached by US leaders frequently to speak about China.

Minister Jun invited to dinner at the Hong Kong Restaurant. Mr. Duan was invited too. After dinner went to a café house (except Duan who could not come) in Place Pigalle to listen to a girls’ music band because General Lee said he loves music. The place had been redone and the show was quite good and all seemed to enjoy it. Minister and Mrs. Jun drove us back home at half past one in the morning.

[1] Lee Beom-seok(1900-1972) was a Korean general.

[2] Ma Zhanshan(1885-1950) was a Chinese Muslim general.