Comments on Agricultural Loans
(September 1, 1955)

Comrade Xiaoping[2]:

Such telegrams must be replied to promptly. Please instruct Zihui[3] to handle this. I consider the request raised by Guangdong to be reasonable. According to this calculation, the whole country must pay approximately 50 million yuan per year for cadre training expenses, and must pay approximately 500 million yuan per year in loans for several years. It is worthwhile to pay these two sums of money.

Mao Zedong
September 1

This comment was written on the report submitted to the Central Committee by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on August 23, 1955, requesting instructions regarding training funds and loans for agricultural cooperative cadres in 1956. The report stated that Guangdong Province planned to develop 70,000 cooperatives before the spring ploughing of 1956, and the training expenses for the backbone personnel establishing the cooperatives would require 1,276,000 yuan; the consolidation work for both new and old cooperatives in 1956 would require an additional 1,183,000 yuan in training expenses. The above two items would total approximately 2,460,000 yuan, which must be allocated by the Central Committee. In addition, to provide poor peasant cooperative fund loans for the newly established cooperatives, as well as necessary capital construction, sideline production, and production expenses for starting ploughing, a total of 37,830,000 yuan in loans would be required, which must also be resolved by the Central Committee.

[2] Xiaoping, i.e., Deng Xiaoping, then serving as Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[3] Zihui, i.e., Deng Zihui, then serving as Director of the Rural Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council.