Remarks at the Meeting to Welcome
Peasant Representatives from Hubei
and Henan Provinces

(March 18, 1927)

(Special dispatch to this newspaper)¹ At seven o'clock on the evening of the
18th, the Committee for the Peasant Movement of the Central Committee, and
the Central Peasant Movement Training Institute, jointly held a meeting to
welcome the peasant representatives from Hubei and Henan provinces. The
place of the meeting was at the Central Peasant Movement Training Institute in
Wuchang. More than a thousand people attended the meeting, including the
representatives from the two provinces, members of the Central Committee,
the whole of the Central Peasant Movement Training Institute, and invited
guests. The chairman, Chen Kewen, declared the meeting open; participants
bowed three times to the national flag, the party flag, and the portrait of the
late Director General. After the Director General's political testament was
read, the chairman made opening remarks (omitted here). Then Mao Zedong,
member of the Central Committee, gave the following remarks:

The interests of the peasants clash with those of the landlords. A group of
Guomindang comrades in Hubei advocate the interests of the peasants. The most
important resolution passed by the Central Committee plenum during the last
few days is the regulation for punishing local bullies and bad gentry.² If we want
to overthrow the local bullies and bad gentry, we must support this group, which
advocates the interests of the peasants.

These remarks appeared in the Hankou Minguo ribao on March 22, 1927. Our translation
is based on the text as reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, p. 265.
1. I.e., the Hankou Republican Daily.
2. The reference is obviously to paragraph 6 of the Resolution on the Peasant Question
adopted on March 16, 1927.