Regarding the Issue of Implementing the Policy of Lenient Treatment of Prisoners of War[1]

(March 2, 1936)

To Lin, Nie, Zhu; Xu, Cheng, Guo; and to Zhang Yunyi; Liu Zhidan and Song Renqiong; Yan Hongyan and Cai Shufan; Xiao Jinguang,[2] for transmission to all local armed forces commanders:

Concerning the policy of changing the treatment of captured enemy officers, one regiment in this battle still failed to carry it out in full (the battalion commander of the 405th Regiment, Battalion Commander Wang, had his overcoat and cap stripped). It must be explained to all Red Army soldiers, commanders, and fighters the purpose of lenient treatment of prisoners of war, especially the lenient treatment of officers, and that when screening enemy officers, big and small, once they are disarmed, under no circumstances shall their clothes be stripped, their persons searched, nor shall they be beaten, cursed, bound, or ridiculed. Rather, they must be approached with an attitude of warm welcome and sincere hospitality, employing this stratagem to disintegrate the White Army.

Peng, Mao, Yang

March 2, 21:30 hours

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai (Commander of the First Front Army of the Red Army), and Yang Shangkun (Director of the Political Department) to Lin Biao (Corps Commander of the First Army Corps of the First Front Army), Nie Rongzhen (Political Commissar), Zhu Rui (Director of the Political Department), and Xu Haidong (Corps Commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps), Cheng Zihua (Political Commissar), Guo Shushen (Director of the Political Department), and others.

[2] Zhang Yunyi was then serving as Deputy Chief of Staff of the First Front Army of the Red Army and concurrently Chief of Staff of the Rear Area Office of the Central Military Commission. Liu Zhidan and Song Renqiong were then serving as Commander and Political Commissar, respectively, of the Twenty-Eighth Army of the Red Army. Yan Hongyan and Cai Shufan were then serving as Commander and Political Commissar, respectively, of the Thirtieth Army of the Red Army. Xiao Jinguang was then serving as Commander of the Twenty-Ninth Army of the Red Army.