The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 119
119 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN say she herself had a very attractive personality. On each occasion, both in Delhi and in Chungking, when brought in contact with her, I admired her greatly. She was a gracious hostess, had a brilliant mind, and was in every way an estimable woman. I do not know whether she herself was concerned in any of these things that I have mentioned, but certainly, Kung, the husband of one sister was the center of corruption. Curiously enough, the third sister was the widow of Sun Yat-Sen. She is now one of the Vice Presidents of the People's Republic. At that time, she was in Chungking; she was not with the Communists. Sun Yat-Sen's son from his first wife, Sun Fo, was one of the two Deputy Foreign Ministers. It was not very easy to obtain access to Chiang Kai- Shek, who was himself Foreign Minister but Sun Fo was always available. I had a standing arrangement with the senior Deputy Foreign Minister that I would call and spend about three quarters of an hour with him every Wednesday, and he would bring me up to date on everything. As I have said the great privation there was the isolation; one did not get any news. He would also give me some sort of news with regard to the fighting, such as it was, that was going on with Japan. I noted that although India was not yet independent and technically was not a sovereign state, I was treated both according to protocol and otherwise exactly as if I was the Ambassador of a sovereign state. So far as contact with high personalities was concerned, I found it easier than European and even American diplomatic representatives. The then American Ambassador led a very secluded life. He had weak eyes, and could not face the glare of the sun; so he had to spend most of his time in a dark room. Thus he did not go about much, but I have no doubt that his colleagues in the Embassy made up that deficiency. The British Ambassador was Sir Horace Seymour. I recall that on one occasion he received some important message from his government which had to be communicated urgently to Chiang Kai-Shek. Now, urgency in China in those days, and particularly in Chungking, had not the same impact as it has elsewhere. He had asked for an interview but he knew from experience that it would be days before he would get the interview. In the meantime, he thought he had better have the information conveyed to him anyhow, although the discussion on it might be postponed. I had a room as my official headquarters in the British Embassy. It was very kind of the British Embassy to let us have a room because accommodations were extremely difficult in Chungking. The Ambassador said to me one day, "Sir Zafrulla, I understand you