Another beautiful, sunny day.
Nice letter from Yafeng 【許亞芬], describing her visit to the homes of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Someday, I hope she will accompany me on another such visit.
Received a group purporting to be representatives of Peiping, urging the needs of that city.
C. C. Wu 【吳景超] and C. M. Li 【李卓敏] came to lunch. Talked over the work of the inspectors of whom C. C. Wu will be the chief. C. M. reported a conversation with H. C. Chang 【張鴻鈞], who complained about Hsieh’s 【謝徵孚?] speaking ill of him, etc. The facts are there. In the Spring, Ku 【谷正綱] came to my office with a group of his staff to talk about co-operation between his ministry and my office. We agreed that he should undertake all the institutional relief, leaving to me all emergency relief, rehabilitation of displaced persons, and public works relief. At the end of the conference, Ku requested a written record, which I sent him. Two months later, after H. C. Chang’s joining the ministry, Ku sent me a long dispatch, upsetting all earlier agreements. Since that day, I acted on the principle that within the powers granted by the Executive Yuan, I was to go ahead without consulting anybody. In other words, I let the Ministry of Social Affairs alone. Now, Ku has turn around and is again willing to handle institution relief alone.
Evening, had a staff conference for the benefit of the regional staff. Went over the same ground all over again. The time spent in educating the staff and arriving at the common understanding of the task ahead seems to me to be well-spent.