ON THE WAYS AND MEANS TO SELL BONDS

Directive of the Central People's Committee, 28 August 1933

[Text] Three million yuan of economic construction bonds have begun to be issued in the various areas in Juichin. According to the most recent experiences of Juichin, though Jun-T'ai District and other areas adopted the correct method and made a great achievement, several other districts committed grave errors. The main manifestation was that the district soviet presidium did not closely tackle bond selling and placed it on its daily agenda for discussion and inspection, but considered it the function of the finance department. If it did not activate the mass organizations of the district level for unanimous mobilization. As a result, the extremely serious situation of equal distribution appeared in many townships. Without going through the discussion and recognition of the labor unions, poor peasants' leagues, women's delegates' association, and other mass organizations, without holding mass meetings to explain clearly the significance of the bonds, the bonds were issued to the township soviet, which, in turn, divided them evenly among the township delegates, who, in turn, divided them evenly among the masses. Whether the masses understood or not, the bonds were evenly divided. Some individual areas forced the middle peasants to buy bonds. If they refused, they were called rich peasants. Consequently, the masses in many areas were dissatisfied, and the sale of bonds was hampered. However, it was entirely different in Yun-ch'i District. Because the Yun-ch'i District Soviet adopted the correct method of mobilization toward the townships and gave detailed explanations to the cadres of the township level and the cadres, in turn, propagandized to the masses, it made a great achievement. The district pledged to sell 40,000 yuan of bonds. In less than 2 weeks, it had sold 22,500 yuan's worth of bonds. Yang-ch'i township was the best. It had sold all 4,600 yuan of bonds undertaken by it. The glorious examples of Yun-ch'i District and Yang-ch'i township are worthy of emulation by all the soviet areas. For the satisfactory result of bond selling this time, the central government specifies the following points on the method of mobilization. The governments of all levels must implement them completely.

1. The provincial soviet must give close attention to the work of bond issuance in the province and discuss, motivate, and inspect it. It must gather the experiences of bond selling in the county where it is located and compile the good and bad examples of the mobilization into a document for the guidance of all the counties in the province.

2. The county soviet must give close attention to the work of bond issuance in the county and discuss, motivate, and inspect it. It must gather the experiences of bond selling in the several counties near the county soviet and compile the good and bad examples into a document for the guidance of the districts.

The county soviet must, for the purpose of selling bonds, summon all the district chairmen and finance department chiefs for a meeting. Even in counties where the bonds have not been received, such meetings must be called, so that the districts will embark upon the mobilization work without delay. They must not wait until the bonds have arrived before holding a meeting and discussing. After the bonds have been issued, they must again call a meeting of the district chairmen to inspect the work and rectify the errors.

3. The district soviet is the pivot to sell bonds and mobilize the masses. It must call a meeting of the township soviet chairmen, poor peasants' league chairmen, and the responsible persons of other mass organizations and explain to them in detail the significance of bond issuance and the method of mobilizing the masses. Meanwhile, it must send them to the various townships and help the township soviets call meetings of township delegates, poor peasants' leagues, labor unions, and other mass organizations, and make detailed explanations to them. Village and hamlet mass meetings must be held through the cadres of the township level, and the significance of the economic construction bonds explained in detail to the masses. If the masses cannot understand after one meeting, another meeting must be held again. When necessary, there may be a third meeting in areas where it is required. The masses must be made to understand that buying bonds is in their own interest and for the victory of the war, so that they will eagerly buy them.

4. The government presidiums of all levels and the township soviet chairmen must strictly prevent the error of even distribution. They must understand that even distribution is thorough bureaucratism and an extremely erroneous method which will block the sale of bonds. On the other hand, it will make it easy for the counterrevolutionaries to create rumors and deceive the people; on the other hand, it will not arouse the revolutionary fervor of the worker-peasant masses. If even distribution is again discovered in the future, the higher level government must rectify it immediately. If the error is not corrected after rectification, punishment must be dealt out.

5. Prohibition of even distribution is for the purpose of encouraging the masses to buy bonds voluntarily. The names of those who buy more bonds and the amounts bought by them must be posted at the gate of the township soviet to serve as models. But absolutely no one must be forced to buy bonds. If a person refuses to buy, the representatives of the township soviet and women's delegates' association, and the members of the labor union and poor peasants' league must persuade and encourage him to buy bonds. Those who have bought bonds may be asked to persuade those who have not. Those who have bought more bonds in a village may be organized into a propaganda team to promote the sale of bonds.

6. Concerning propaganda work, the Central Government has already made an announcement. Upon receipt of the announcement, the township government must immediately post it in the villages and hamlets. The Central Government has also issued a propaganda outline on the economic construction bonds. The work personnel and propaganda teams of the district and township soviets must follow the articles in the outline and perform propaganda and encouragement work toward the masses.

7. The masses may pay for the bonds in cash or grain. The district soviet will set the price of grain according to the local market value and notify the townships.

8. The district soviets must guide the townships to form bond selling competition agreements. Besides the figures, the agreement must provide that the bureaucratism of method, such as coercive distribution, is allowed. The time limit must not be set too short (naturally nor too long either), because it will make full mobilization impossible.

Attention must be given to all the eight points above. The provincial and county soviets must send men to the counties and districts to inspect and determine whether they are implementing fully this directive of the Central Government. The county soviets must make a simple summary of the district in their own counties which was most successful in selling bonds and mail it to "RED CHINA" for publication, in order to encourage all the soviet areas. It is so ordered.

Vice Chairmen Hsiang Ying,
Chang Kuo-t'ao

28 August 1933
° "RED CHINA," No 108, 6 September 1933