argument in philosophy on marxist and non-marxist concepts of truth! Otherwise I talk feverishly to other diplomats and journalists and garner small quantities of knowledge on this amazing place. The Chinese have lost none of their historical disdain for foreigners, and here one is never allowed to forget it. But it is strangely impressive, provided one does not kow-tow too much in return.
And now today I must report a strange event. According to news reaching us from foreign countries, someone who calls himself President of some country called America has arrived in the Celestial City. We have heard little of this man except that as ‘chief boss of the imperialists’ he is extremely bad and commits terrible crimes against the peoples of the world (who are always heroic and win ever greater victories). But according to foreign news he is not all that bad, and is himself fighting all sorts of bad people in the name of freedom and democracy. So we are greatly confused. Anyway according to foreign news – the BBC which is said to come 10,000 li from England, called in this language ‘the brave country’ I don’t know why – he was to arrive in this city to-day. My wife, your respectful daughter and daughter-in-law, dressed herself in a smart suit for the occasion, and I left my office on what has now come to be known as a Nixon-hunt! Only we took no guns: only ourselves and cameras. What is extraordinary is that when other Important Foreign Personages (or Devils as we call them) come to the Celestial City to kow-tow before the Dragon Throne, several hundred thousand of our citizens are ordered into the streets and particularly into the great square in front of the residence of our Emperor to welcome them. On this occasion no such thing happened. All we saw was a long line of black cars, made by Number 1 Shanghai Motor Steam Car Factory of glorious memory, which passed by the glories of our city at great speed; one had flying from it two very small flags – that of our country and another with stars and stripes, very vulgar. We must presume that this [car] contained this man. To register this extraordinarily insignificant event in the life of our country many strange foreign newspapermen came and set up strange devices all over the city. And when the cars had passed they threw up their hands and said ‘They’re not going to believe this back home!’ and laughed, though at what I cannot say.
That, so far, is the Nixon visit: you will have seen much more of it at home than we do here. The Chinese have taken elaborate pains to make no display at all – he has come as a private citizen [this was because there were at this time no diplomatic relations between the US and China – the US still recognized the government of Taiwan as the lawful government of China]. We rely for scanty reports on what is happening on a few friendly journalists, who have much more access than we!
All this must seem rather rarified when you are on very restricted electricity and suffering innumerable hardships. We on the other hand have overpoweringly centrally-heated flats and endless good things to eat and drink. It is hard to imagine the problems caused by a major power strike but they must be very great.
I must finish this to catch the bag which leaves tomorrow and send you all our love. The winter shows signs of ending; it is no longer so bitterly cold. More thrilling instalments soon.
OFFICE OF THE BRITISH CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES PEKING
5 MARCH 1972 CR
Such is the time lag between all our letters that I have lost track and cannot remember when I last wrote but it seems an age. Daddy’s of the 19th posted direct reached us on the morning of the 28th and Mummy’s of the 16th via the Bag reached us on the 28th too along with all our others for that fortnight. There is a certain excitement in having post only once every two weeks – it’s just like Christmas when it comes! Some parcels arrived a few days before that too with a hand knitted jersey for J from Sybil and two more Beatrix Potter for him from Jonny and a book from his godmother Sue, so his birthday excitements seem to have been lasting for weeks.
J is asleep, M is busy clearing up the debris from last night’s festivities at the Office, a gambling evening for 150 people with the theme Guys and Dolls for which we had to wear suitable costumes. We managed to make a lot of money to help towards the new Club which we are all building and decorating with our own hands and it was quite entertaining watching half Peking’s diplomatic community huddled over roulette tables. They all enjoyed it enormously and one can’t help feeling a certain pride as the British are the only Mission who ever organize anything at all and it requires quite a lot of hard work and imagination to get the thing going. But not a single other Embassy ever do anything and it becomes rather wearying when they all depend on us to provide social distractions here without contributing anything in return. Anyway I am still cross-eyed from handing out chips all night and my lips smarting from their first covering of scarlet lipstick for many years. It is the second time we’ve been required to wear fancy dress since we arrived and I already feel my very tiny supply of artistic imagination in that direction has been thoroughly used up!
It is a gorgeous day with the sun pouring into our flat and the outside growing less cold. Buds on the trees which any moment now will burst into leaf. The trees here are one of Peking’s loveliest aspects. The roads are all lined with them and the parks and zoos very heavily planted too. I know too little about botany to know what they all are but of course the willow is everywhere and the crooked fir you see in all the pictures and a type of silver birch and poplars along the roadside.
Last weekend we drove up to the Great Wall. It took about two hours through quite beautiful country framed all the time by the Western Hills which are still out of bounds. Glorious muted colours of brown fields, bare trees, small villages, hundreds of donkeys and oxen pulling carts, and eventually the cragged mountains up which we climbed until we hit the wall. No wonder it is a Wonder of the World – built in the 5th century BC it straggles across over 2,000 miles of mountain ranges and is wide enough for carts to be driven along the top. The communists have restored a small section of it for tourists but standing on one of the look-out posts you can see it stretching away in both directions as far as the eye can see. It really is magnificent and I suppose J is the youngest English child to have seen it which is something of a record!
On the domestic front we are hardly any further on than we were when I last wrote. The painters left yesterday and we are mighty glad to see them go. Our pictures are hung but no curtains and piles of possessions still lie about the flat. J’s room is complete, hung with Jonny’s Christmas Beatrix Potter pictures and he seems much happier as a result. He has a tank of goldfish too to keep him company. I have established that the French school here will take him as soon as he is potty-trained which I am afraid looks a long way off still. But it is a comfort to think there is a chance to mix with children of his own age when the time comes. He really has undergone quite a transformation in the last week, and I hardly dare mention it in case it is a temporary phase! He is consistently merry and gay! Lots of laughter and lots of chat goes on all day which is such a relief! I think that the fact that he can talk more-or-less properly now has removed some of the frustrations but most of all I think he feels secure and settled for the first time for many months. I wish you could all see something of him now because he really does seem to have a sweet and loving personality and I think these two years are when small boys are at their best. He grows more and more like Benjy to look at every day and of course talks about you all endlessly, sitting for hours poring over photos taken on our leave. Another great advance is that he loves books and we have half an hour reading time before bed each night and he spends a lot of each day looking at them too. So things are looking up and I feel a million times better as a result. Michael is going off to Tientsin on Wednesday to visit some of his flock and he continues to be very busy. He has been in on The Negotiations [to establish full diplomatic relations] since he arrived and has enjoyed meeting all the high ups in the Chinese Foreign Office and they in turn are very impressed by his youth and command of the language! We have lunched once with the Chargé [John Addis] and dined for the first time with him last night. He is rather austere. He has taken us round all the Commission Shops [where a limited selection of antiques are on sale] but there is nothing there to buy anymore and as he possesses the best collection of Chinese porcelain in the world he is very fussy. The absence of a wife and family make him rather insensitive to all our problems here and as the Head of Chancery is a bachelor
