Wednesday, 24 May
In the afternoon, the newly-appointed Uruguay Minister to the Soviet Union, Frugoni. visited me. This time he spent three months on the journey here. Uruguay is one of the small countries in South America, which was originally a Spanish colony, but later became the province of Brazil. It became independent in 1825. According to the 1935 census the population was only 2,000,000. Its capital, Montevideo, had over 600,000 out of the 2,000,000. People are mainly nomadic, and its exports mainly livestock, wool and so on. In terms of commercial connections Britain is the most important one, Germany is the second, while the United States is unexpectedly the third. Spanish is the official language. Minister Frugoni looked prudent, and could only speak French. Therefore when I talked to him I needed Counsellor Liu to translate. He said after our country participated in the War of Resistance, all the South American countries quite respected us. After the war, Uruguay will welcome Chinese immigrants.
Recently, American public opinion has criticised the United States for being too accommodating in its policy towards the Soviet Union. The former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (American, name uncertain) recently delivered a speech even advocating it was necessary to set up an international cooperative organisation to handle all international problems, so as to solve all these things in a reasonable manner. Otherwise certain strong countries will handle matters freely, and force will still be the only way to solve international problems rather than by justice. At the moment accommodation towards the Soviet Union is no different to accommodation towards Germany in the past. According to the news from the United States yesterday, the Secretary of State, Hull, made a proposal with regard to the organisation of the International Council with representatives in the Senate, of which the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China would be the basic members. But the original text was not published. From this we can deduce the United States is suspicious of the Sovier Union’s various actions. Or it wanted to force the Soviet Union to decide its cooperative method before the opening of the second war zone. All in all, it is most unfortunate that things have aroused suspicion as has happened among the Allies.
Yesterday, our army made good advances in Burma and Henan. The sacrificial spirit of our troops in the Front lines is very commendable.
The Turkish Ambassador is very pessimistic about the present situation, and he reckons that Poland will have internal disorder, because recently the Polish army fought well in Italy, and there are quite a few Polish army units in Britain, they will certainly contribute a lot in the war in western Europe. Britain and the United States cannot ignore them, and the Soviet Union will try to organise another government which it deems pro-Soviet. Now Yugoslavia is divided into four cliques, also Greece is not unified. These two countries will definitely have civil wars. This type of civil war will naturally affect world peace and cooperation among the Allies. Therefore, the world’s future is bleak. Recently inside Turkey there have been many problems, students of the so-called Fascist Grey Wolves have held demonstrations. There are many pro-German elements among Turkish military officers. So if Turks would support the Allies there could be serious internal problems. The Turkish Ambassador’s pessimistic view is understandable.
Today the British Prime Minister, Churchill, made a detailed report in Parliament when it began discussing diplomatic issues. The main points were as follows.
1) Recently the Dominions have shown their support for British diplomatic policy and the principles that the policy is based on.
2) Although Turkey did not join in the Allies’ war, the Allies will still be able to score a victory. It would certainly be beneficial to the war if Turkey joins, but as it has decided not to join, the Allies have decided not to ask it to join again. The armaments Britain and the United States have supplied to Turkey has already reached £20 million, and in the future, Turkey will have no right with regard to having a say in world affairs.
3) Italy still supported Badoglio, saying that he had contributed to the fighting. In the future we should let the Italians select their own government. He also hoped that Rome could be kept.
4) Spain has stopped supplying tungsten ore to Germany and stopped the activities of German and Japanese diplomats in North Africa. With regard to Spain’s internal politics, the Allies will not interfere.
5) Greece has serious problems because of the military mutiny in the Far East, hopefully all parties will reach a consensus at the Lebanon Conference, and a coalition cabinet will be formed. Because Mihailović of Yugoslavia was not enthusiastic in resisting Germany, his aides reached an understanding with enemies. Therefore the British Government has withdrawn its support. King Peter of Yugoslavia wanted to reorganise its government and separated with Mihailović. With regard to Tito, Britain is trying its best to help.
6) The French Committee of National Liberation will naturally come under the supervision of the Allied army after landing in Western Europe. Britain and the United States cannot recognise that committee as the French Government, because they do not know what the French people’s preference will be in the future. But as for the Allies, they will certainly not come into contact with the Vichy Government. Recently Churchill himself obtained agreement from President Roosevelt and invited De Gaulle to meet in London. De Gaulle agreed that he would come very soon.
7) With regard to the Soviet-Polish Incident, the British efforts have been in vain. He felt deep regret. After Poland ceded territory, it could get compensation from Germany and Britain will naturally agree. But the current situation of the Soviet-Polish Incident is not as severe as we saw from the surface.
8) It is necessary to set up an institution to maintain international peace, and give it power of implementation.
9) We should remain in combat with Germany and Japan until they surrender unconditionally. The whole speech addressed all these important issues. The content was rich too.