On the Method of Selling Treasury Bonds
Order of the Council of People's Commissars
(August 28, 1933)
The sale of 3,000,000 yuan worth of economic construction bonds has already
begun in various parts of Ruijin. According to the recent experience in Ruijin,
although Yunji District and other places adopted the correct method and made
great progress, serious mistakes were made in other districts. The chief manifestation of this lies in the failure of the presidiums of the district soviets to place on
their agenda for discussion and review the work of promoting the sale of treasury
bonds, and in their treatment of the work of selling bonds as a matter simply for
the Commissariat for Finance, without promoting the mobilization of the mass
organizations at the district level. As a result, an extremely serious phenomenon
of imposing uniform quotas occurred in many townships. The treasury bonds
were simply handed over to the township soviets, without going through discussion and acceptance by the labor union, the poor peasant league, or meetings of
women's representatives or other mass bodies, and without giving reports at the
meetings of the deputies of the township soviets, still less calling a mass meeting
to explain clearly the importance of treasury bonds. The township soviets then
distributed the quota of bonds to each township deputy, who then distributed the
quota uniformly among the masses, in total disregard of whether the masses
understood or not; without exception, equal quotas were imposed. In a few
places, middle peasants were forced to purchase these bonds; if they refused to
buy, they were accused of being rich peasants. Consequently, resentment was
aroused among the masses in many places, thus obstructing the sale of treasury
bonds. In Yunji District, however, it was completely different. This was because
the method used by the district soviet of Yunji in mobilizing various townships
was very correct; it provided very detailed explanations to the cadres at the
township level and let these cadres conduct excellent propaganda to the masses.
As a result, very great success was achieved. The whole district assumed the
responsibility of selling 40,700 yuan in treasury bonds; it sold 25,000 yuan in
less than three weeks. Of its townships, Yangxi did the best job. This township
This document first appeared in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 108, September 6, 1933. Our
source is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 3, pp. 357-60.

has already finished selling the 4,600 yuan in treasury bonds for which it was
responsible. The glorious examples of Yunji District and Yangxi Township are
worthy of emulation by the entire Soviet Area. In order that the sale of treasury
bonds may this time be satisfactorily carried out, the Central Government has
especially made the following points on the issue of the methods of mobilization
in selling treasury bonds; governments at all levels must act completely in accordance with them.
1. The provincial soviets must firmly grasp the work of selling treasury bonds
in the provinces; they must discuss, promote, and examine the work. They must
collect from one of the xian in the vicinity of the provincial soviets the experience of selling treasury bonds and compile good and bad examples of mobilization methods into documents to be quickly made available for instruction for the
entire province and every xian.
2. The xian soviets must step up the work of selling treasury bonds in the xian;
they must discuss, promote, and examine the work. Similarly, they must collect
experience from the districts near the locations of the xian soviets and compile
good and bad examples into documents for the instruction of all the districts.
The presidiums of the xian soviets must call meetings of the chairmen of the
district soviets of the xian and the heads of the finance departments to promote
the sale of treasury bonds. Xian which have not yet received treasury bonds
should also call such meetings in advance, so that the districts may start the work
of mobilization beforehand. Do not wait for the arrival of treasury bonds and
then call meetings to discuss the matter in haste. After the sale of treasury bonds
is completed, the xian should also call meetings of district chairmen to conduct a
review and correct their mistakes.
3. The district soviets are the key in the sale of treasury bonds. They should call
meetings to be attended by the chairmen of the township soviets, directors of the
poor peasant league, and the leaders of other mass organizations to tell them the
significance of the issuance of treasury bonds and the methods of mobilizing the
masses. At the same time, they should send people to individual townships to assist
the township soviets to call meetings of the township deputies, the poor peasant
league, the labor union, and other mass groups to give them detailed explanations.
They must send the cadres at the township level to individual villages and households to call mass meetings and explain to the masses in detail the meaning of the
economic development bonds. If the masses remain unclear after one meeting, cadres must go to the villages and households to call a second meeting. If there are still
places where people do not understand, a third meeting must be called there. In
general, we must help the masses to understand completely and eagerly purchase
treasury bonds for their own interest and for the victory of the war.
4. The presidiums of the governments at all levels and chairmen of township
soviets must strictly guard against the mistake of imposing uniform quotas. They
must understand that imposing uniform quotas is unadulterated bureaucraticism
and an extremely wrong method, which obstructs the sale of treasury bonds. On

the one hand, this method easily enables counterrevolutionary elements to spread
rumor and deception. On the other, it prevents the workers and peasants from
expressing their revolutionary fervor. If incidents of imposing uniform quotas are
discovered in the future, higher-level governments must immediately correct
them; those who fail to make the corrections must be punished.
5. Opposing the imposition of uniform quotas means to encourage the masses
to buy treasury bonds voluntarily. Those who have bought a lot of bonds should
have their names listed in front of the township soviets with public commendations as models. Those who refuse to buy the bonds must not be forced to buy.
The representatives of the township soviets, representatives of the women's deputies, and members of the labor union and the poor peasant league should be sent
to persuade and encourage them to buy. We may let those who have already
bought treasury bonds go to persuade those who have not bought any. We may
organize in every village individuals who have bought a lot of bonds into a
propaganda team to conduct propaganda on the sale of treasury bonds.
6. The Central Government has already issued announcements on propaganda work; upon receiving the announcements, township governments should
immediately assign people to post them in all villages and households. The
Central Government has also issued a propaganda outline on the economic de-development bonds. The staff and officials of district and township soviets and
propaganda teams should conduct propaganda and mobilization work among the
masses according to the provisions of this outline.
7. The masses are free to decide whether to pay for the treasury bonds with
cash or rice. The price of rice is set according to the local market price; all
townships are to be informed about this rule.
8. All district soviets should direct individual townships to make up competition rules for selling the treasury bonds. The competition rules should not specify
only the amount; they must spell out a ban on the bureaucratic use of coercive
quotas. The time period for completing the competition rules should not be set
too short (of course, it should not be set too long either) because too short a
period of time does not allow for the use of the method of full mobilization.
The above eight provisions must be heeded during this issuance of treasury
bonds. The provincial and xian soviets must send people to each xian and district
to conduct inspections, to find out whether this instruction of the Central Government has been fully carried out. The xian soviets must also take care to write
brief summaries on the xian's districts that have achieved the best results in
selling treasury bonds and send them to Red China for publication to promote the
sale of treasury bonds in the entire soviet area. It is so ordered.

Chairman
Vice-Chairmen

Mao Zedong
Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao