Bought some vitamin pills and a bottle of Parker 51 ink, which friends say is simple magic. Thinking and planning tonight’s speech. Yafeng 【許亞芬] came to lunch. Read New Republic: interesting survey article on American magazines. At 6:15, went to YWCA at 17 and K. About 200 Oberlin alumni were present. Gulick spoke on UNRRA 【聯合國善後救濟總署]. I spoke on “Political Life in China.” I stressed: (1) China is today the melting pot of the world’s ideas—open-minded to all foreign ideas; (2) interest groups not well-organized and not bringing so much pressure on the government. After the speech, Gulick put to me a question on inflation, which gave me a chance to give my classical reply, given by me from New York to San Francisco. Oberlin songs enlivened the occasion. I enjoyed being there and enjoyed speaking—but the crowd was sleepy. Oberlin fellows should be more alert and more brainy.
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While in Chungking, long before I came to this country, I was much impressed by Henry R. Luce’s publications—Time, Life, and Fortune. The fine paper, print, and make-up, the breeziness of style, and the audacity of conception were all impressive. Teddy White 【白修德],【1】 Time correspondent, was a frequent caller and very friendly. But once, Time carried a small article on China, the facts of which were all wrong. That opened my eyes and made me think that Time was not so infallible as I had thought. Teddy’s MSS were picturesque but very superficial. Fortune’s proposal to create a new state in S. E. Asia plainly showed that the staff lived in a dream world, having no conception of the realities of international politics or of Asia. Finally, Time treated UNRRA 【聯合國善後救濟總署] miserably. So, at the luncheon in December, where I met Luce’s staff, I was critical and smartishly critical, telling the fellows there that the greatest danger in modern society is men who write better than they think. I suspected that Luce took offense at my thrust. He on his part put me down as a henchman of Kung 【孔祥熙] as well as a minor smart official. His favoritism of T. V. 【宋子文] and his attacks on FDR seem to me to be both small and over-partisan. That was the state of our relation until we sat next to each other at Waldorf Astoria dinner on the night of Feb. 29th. I referred to attitude of Chinese and Americans towards each other as within the family, hence the crap of criticism in the U.S.A., embracing some of the ladies at Chungking. We talked about Russia, and I suggested the extreme politics and strategies importance of Korea. We were so interested in our discussion that we forgot the social amenities of the occasion. At the beginning of March, he wrote me a letter, praising my little talk as a “gem,” thanking me for my suggestion on Korea, and expressing the wish for a future chat. I promptly replied. His publications have great influence over leaders in Chungking, and I hope to pass to him my knowledge of the situation so that influence would be to the good. I would urge him to keep off family feuds, read Chinese communist tactics as part of Soviet power game, advocate thorough modernization. I would like to probe the possibilities.

【注】
【1】Theodore H. White 白修德（1915-1986），生於美國麻州波士頓，1938年哈佛大學畢業後，受費正清影響來華從事記者工作。
曾任職於董顯光主持的國際宣傳處，1939年成為《時代》雜誌駐華通訊記者，1946年出版與賈安娜（Annalee Jacoby）合著的《中國的驚雷》（Thunder Out of China, 又譯作《中國的暴風雨》），後因長期與亨利．魯斯對於中國政治的立場相左去職。
1948-1950年任海外通訊社歐洲通訊記者，1950-1953年任《報導者》（The Reporter）雜誌記者。
後專職寫作，1962年以《美國總統的產生：1960年》（The Making of the President, 1960）獲得普立茲獎。
參考：Joyce Hoffmann, Theodore H. White and Journalism as Illusion (Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1995)。