and respond by telegram.
Luo [Fu] [Lin] Yu[ying] [Zhou] En[lai]
Bo [Gu] [Wang] Jia[xiang] [Peng De]huai
Kai [Feng] [Mao] Ze[dong]
Putting the Emphasis on the Political
Education of Captives from the White Army
(August 13, 1936, 12:30 A.M.)
To Peng [Dehuai], Liu [Xiao], Zuo [Quan], Nie [Rongzhen], Zhu [Rui], and
Deng [Xiaoping], Xu [Haidong], Cheng [Zihua], and Wang [Shoudao], Song
[Shilun] and Song [Renqiong], Yan [Hongyan] and Cai [Shufan], Xiao
[Jingguang], Li [Fuchun], Xie [Song] and Liu [You'an], Zhong [Chibing], Guo
[Baoshan], and Huang [Chunpu]:


1. In order to strengthen united front activities and the work of winning over
the White army, it is necessary to place emphasis on political education among
officers and soldiers captured from the White army, and give them special preferential treatment so as to train a group of qualified personnel who can go
anywhere, or who can at least engage in liaison and communications work.
Therefore, it has been specially decided that:
a. Where there are large numbers of captives, it is necessary to select out a
group of the best officers and men and give them special training.
b. All individual prisoners captured occasionally on various fronts, and all
those who cross over [to our side] should remain for training and not be
released immediately.
c. As for organs to conduct the training, some [captives] should remain at
the front to be trained by the various political departments, and some
should be sent to the General Political Department and the Anti-Japanese
Front Department in the rear.
d. The content of the training shall emphasize the united front and work
within the White army.
e. After training is completed, they should immediately be sent to work
within the White army, with an emphasis on higher level activities and
interaction with officers.


2. In accordance with the development of the work at present, it is hoped that
all captives and all officers and men who have crossed over who remain at the
various political departments at the front from the forces of the two Mas,¹ He

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 567-69, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

1. Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin.