Sun Fo told me a lot of interesting things about China. The Japanese offensive has run out of steam. Tokyo is no longer thinking about new conquests, but about consolidating what it has captured. Within the next few weeks, Japan plans to put Wang Jingwei on the throne and sign a peace treaty with him. The Japanese hope that after this they can withdraw from China at least half of their army, which now numbers nearly a million. But Japan is miscalculating. Jiang Jieshi is building up and training a large army for an offensive. Now that the Japanese attack has petered out, the Chinese mean to begin a general, lengthy and dogged offensive, which can end only in the expulsion of the Japanese from the continent.

Arms are critical, of course. China gets them from two sources: the USA and, in particular, the USSR. We provide China with considerable assistance in arms, ammunition, instructors, etc. The credit agreement concluded this June on the basis of commodity exchange is functioning well. The road through Tianjin is in good condition. Transportation by lorry from the Turksib to Lanzhou takes about three weeks. The air link that is currently being established between Moscow and Chongqing will take five days. There are some problems to do with fuel, but a highly original solution has been found: fuel is delivered to fuelling stations along the Tianjin Road not by lorries, but by camels, which consume no petrol on the way, while goods are carried by truck. What a combination: Noah’s ark and aeroplanes!

Incidentally, big oil fields have been found recently in Tianjin and Gansu. Soviet engineers are already developing them in Tianjin and will soon start to do so in Gansu. Oil refineries will then be built. Then the problem of transportation via the Tianjin Road will be resolved for good.

On the whole, Sun Fo is optimistic about the future. Or is he just pretending…?

Sun Fo’s London impressions are rather vague. He met Halifax and Churchill. Halifax told him that in connection with the war in Europe, the British government is most eager to normalize its relations with Japan, but does not intend to achieve this ‘at China’s expense’. Sun Fo, however, takes a very sceptical view of the foreign secretary’s statement. Halifax asked him about the state of Chinese–Soviet relations and was pleased to hear from Sun Fo that there had been no changes in this area. Halifax told Sun Fo that the British government wanted to put right its relations with the Soviet Union.

Churchill was more definite. He said: ‘We are friends with China. China is a friend of the USSR. All three of us should be friends.’

Churchill interrogated Sun Fo at length about the USSR and spoke of the British government’s intention to improving relations with Moscow. Churchill was especially interested in the volume of Soviet economic aid to Germany, and asked whether it was true that the USSR was selling planes and submarines to Germany. Sun Fo apparently replied that the latter was hardly probable and that the quantity of food, raw materials and so on that Germany might get from the USSR was relatively small. Churchill also wished to know the meaning of the new Soviet policy in the Baltics. What is it: defensive measures or the beginning of major imperialist expansion? Sun Fo apparently replied that we are guided by defensive interests. Churchill then said that if that was the case, he would not object to Soviet actions in the Baltics and Finland, for they do not conflict with the interests of Great Britain. Sun Fo, interestingly enough, spoke with Churchill prior to my evening meeting with the latter.

Sun Fo will fly back to China in a few days.