Comrade Yibo:

(1) The telegram to the various Central Bureaus has been approved and issued;
(2) The Central Committee’s public notice is returned to you. Please add the time when the Government Administration Council issued the directive, and send it together with the directive to the Xinhua News Agency for publication;
(3) The questions of whether to increase the agricultural tax and whether to call for donations must still wait a few days before the Central Committee can convene a meeting to discuss them.

Mao Zedong
May 31

Based on the manuscript.

---

Notes

〔1〕 Bo Yibo, then Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the Government Administration Council and Minister of Finance.
〔2〕 Refers to the telegram explaining the situation to the responsible comrades of the various Central Bureaus in connection with the issuance of the Government Administration Council’s directive on purchasing and storing cotton.
〔3〕 Refers to the notice issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on June 1, 1951, to Party committees at all levels to ensure the victorious fulfillment of the tasks of purchasing and storing cotton set forth in the Government Administration Council’s directive. This notice was published in *Renmin Ribao* on the same day.
〔4〕 Refers to the directive on the work of purchasing and storing cotton issued on June 1, 1951, by Zhou Enlai, Premier of the Government Administration Council of the Central People’s Government. The directive analyzed the situation in which China’s cotton output fell short of demand and cotton farmers hoarded their cotton and refused to sell, causing spinning mills to begin shutting down due to difficulties in raw material supply. It pointed out: If such a situation is not changed, it will affect the clothing supply for soldiers and civilians nationwide and the stability of prices, and will harm the war effort and the interests of the majority of the people nationwide. Therefore, a patriotic campaign for selling and storing cotton must be launched among cotton farmers across the country, urging farmers who have cotton to immediately sell their stored cotton to the state at reasonable listed prices, as an expression of patriotism and an important contribution by the farmers to the nation. At the same time, state trading companies and cooperatives should set reasonable listed prices and purchase the cotton from cotton farmers; cooperatives and the People’s Bank should use savings methods beneficial to cotton farmers to absorb their savings in kind or savings at converted prices. A firm policy of considering both public and private interests shall be implemented. This directive was also published in *Renmin Ribao* on the same day.