Thinking about my talk in Columbia. I took out 司馬遷 and looked up his chapter on economic conditions. He gave brief sketches of lives of men and one woman who became rich and acquired a social status comparable to the highest nobles of the time. The fortunes made came mainly from iron, salt, and cattle (from northwest). In regards to conditions south of the Yangtze, he said “People had difficulty in securing food. They were lazy and had no ambition to get rich. They used fire to clear and fertilize the fields and water to rid the weeds.” The northern Chinese of his day, evidently looked upon the southern Chinese in the same way as the Chinese of the present look on the Thais, the Annamites, and the Burmans. South China must have gave a drastic change in population since Szema Chien’s 【司馬遷] time.
Attended a reception by the Sakells【1】 in Alexandria.

【注】
【1】可能是Achilles Nicholas Sakell（1906-1987），生於希臘，1938年歸化美國籍。
1940年代起長期服務於美國國務院至1976年退休，此時為國際開發總署的新聞官員。
參考：“Achilles N. Sakell,” The Washington Post (Aug. 11, 1987), p. D5; U.S. Department of State, The Biographic Register (July 1974), p. 298。