CONFIDENTIAL
reporters (see attached story from the Wen Wei Pao of 3 June). They were also invited to have a talk with Li Jusheng, the acting No 1 Director in Wang Kuang's absence on a tour of the US. During the meeting the Gao family's difficulties during the Cultural Revolution came up and Li urged Mrs Gao to forget all about it now. The Wen Wei Pao article does not record that she replied forcibly that she neither could nor would forget what the family had been through.
4.
Two other points of minor interest. The Gao
family are convinced that whatever happened during the last weeks of her life Madame Soong was never a communist. Deanna also told me that during her recent visit to Madame Soong she passed Liao Chengzhi on her way out and said she nearly failed to recognise him since he had lost so much weight and looked much healthier than when she had last seen him. When he was here last year the NCNA told us that his doctors were finding it difficult to persuade him to cut down on food and drink. It seems that they are now being more successful.
5.
A currency note. Deanna was enraged during her recent visit to find that she was unable to stay in normal tourist hotels since the only money she had was Chinese currency available in China as a result of some restitution of property taken from the family during the Cultural Revolution. Despite all her browbeating of officials, she could not get them to recognise the absurdity of normal Chinese currency being unacceptable in hotels in China. also found that friends who had previously found it easy to meet with her were now reluctant to do so and were certain that contacts with foreigners (and Deanna now travels on a French passport) were carefully monitored. However, she found the atmosphere in Shanghai considerably more relaxed.
She
(I C Orr)
cc w/enc P J Williamson Esq HK&GD FCO
RN Peirce Esq PEKING M Richardson Esq ROME