Sunny and warm, 60°. Delegation meeting.
C. M. Chen 【陳之邁] came back from Formosa. Government finally decided not to have him there when Nixon arrived, for fear of creating any misunderstanding and affording the fellow-travelers any excuse for attack. He told me the Formosan finance was in bad shape, rearmament having caused larger incidental expenditure. C. 【蔣中正] was angry, because U.S. delivery of arms was way behind U.S. budgeted figure—by 700 million dollars.
Afternoon, S.C. on Qibya. Malik wished Gen. Bennike to read his answers, which take up 40 typewritten pages. ¾ of an hour was taken up arguing over the point. I never understood Malik’s purpose. Finally, he gave up the attempt. Am glad I did not intervene in the debate.
Dinner with Ernest Gross. There were the Javits (Republican Congressman) and the Petersons, banker from Philadelphia. Conversation centered around Palestine. Ernest openly condemned Qibya but thought it wrong for the U.S.A., the U.K., and France to bring up the matter to the Security Council. I urged that the Arabs were more moderate than the Israel thought and that a way might be found to secure peaceful relations.