Written Reply Regarding the Substance
of Zhou Enlai's Negotiations in Nanjing
(March 5, 1937, 9:00 P.M.)
With utmost urgency, to Zhou [Enlai]:
1. The detachment directly under General Headquarters is made up of two
intelligence regiments, one at the front and the other at the rear, with a total of
about fifteen hundred people. As regards all the other organs, for the appointment of brigade commanders and the formation of units, we will wait to reply
until Peng [Dehuai] and Ren [Bishi] have given their views. We agree with all
the rest.


2. Demand that the Guomindang, at the same time that we make public our
declaration, also make public in the form of a statement acknowledgment of our
legal status.


3. It would be best for the administrative districts to have a system of a
chairman and a number of committees, with a monthly budget (including expenditures for security forces) of three hundred thousand. Another two million in
Soviet currency is also to be recalled.¹


4. Let it be known that the figures for Party membership still need to be
clarified, but the total number is estimated to be around a hundred thousand, half
in the Soviet areas and half in the White areas. For the time being Zhou and Ye
are to attend the national conference,² and Mao will not. Lin [Boqu], as chairman
of the Special District, will also sit on the Economic Committee.


5. Please make appropriate arrangements within the next day or two for food
allowances and reinforcements for the West Route Army.




Luo [Fu]
Mao [Zedong]
Peng [Dehuai] and Ren [Bishi] are also to be informed.

Our source for this text is Wenxian he yanjiu, no. 4 (1985) (p. 211 of the annual volume).

--- Notes

1. See above, the note to the text of March 1, 1937.

2. The editors of Wenxian he yanjiu state that this should probably read "national
defense conference."