Beautiful and cold day. Left Shanghai with General Edgerton by the 6:45 a.m. plane. Took him first to Nanking Road for breakfast. Saw Dison 【浦薛鳳] for a moment: told him he should resign immediately, for I know P. H. Ho 【霍寶樹] made up his mind to drop him. Somebody told me that Ho would drop C. M. 【李卓敏] also: that is the biggest blow to me., for C. M. is the logical man to keep continuity and morale of the old staff. Had a talk with Fu Sze-nien 【傅斯年]. Wong 【翁文灝] came to lunch and agreed that the best thing for me to do would be to go to the States and drop all government connections. He is bitter against T. V. 【宋子文] on other grounds. He commented, “With the annexation of CNRRA 【行政院善後救濟總署], T. V. completes his domination of supplies. He has achieved control of money already.” C. C. Wu 【吳景超] came: he goes on to Hupeh, Anhwei, and Kiangsi to complete his survey. At 4 p.m., Edgerton and I went to call on C. 【蔣中正]. Edgerton made a good impression; so did C. C. took the occasion to say that he had omitted telling me in advance his decision to let me resign and that he would like to see me go to India or Turkey as Ambassador. I thanked him, expressed him my regret for not having done more, and begged him not to keep me in the government service. I said I intended to rest; then retire to teaching and research, for at least two years. He said no, and that Wang Shih-chieh 【王世杰] would see me.
Wang came at 6:20. Urged me to take up a diplomatic post, did not specify. Told him I wished to get away from the government. He caught my point, said, “You know this government is not one man’s gov’t. People come and go.” I urged to smooth way for my retirement so that C. would not misunderstand.