Two Notes on Learning About the Rectification of Agricultural Cooperatives in Boye County, Hebei Province (September 13 and October 23, 1955) 1. This document [1] is hereby sent to Comrade Lin Tie [2] of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee for your review. Zhong Shuntong is one of our security personnel here. According to him, some cooperatives in Boye County have not been earnestly rectified. We request that the Provincial Party Committee pay attention to this matter and, if it is true, take steps to resolve it. Mao Zedong, September 13

2. Ye Zilong [3] informed Comrade Lin Tie by telephone: This letter [4] has been received; thank you to him. Mao Zedong, October 23 Printed from the manuscript.


Notes [1] Refers to a report written by Zhong Shuntong on August 5, 1955, concerning the situation of agricultural cooperatives in the three townships of Xujiaying, Dugzhuang, and Beiyuan in Boye County, Hebei Province. In discussing the rectification of the cooperatives, the report stated that this round of rectification merely involved registering assets, cooperative names, chairpersons, and key cadres, without addressing the underlying problems within the cooperatives. The farmers demanded that after the autumn harvest, agricultural cooperatives must be thoroughly reorganized, cadres and Party members disciplined, and policy and ideological education for rural cadres—especially those at the township, village, and cooperative levels—strengthened. [2] Lin Tie was then Secretary of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee and Governor of Hebei Province. [3] Ye Zilong was then Mao Zedong’s secretary. [4] Refers to a letter dated October 20, 1955, from Lin Tie to Mao Zedong regarding an inspection of work in Boye County. The letter stated that upon receiving Mao’s forwarded report by Zhong Shuntong, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee immediately dispatched a working group, in collaboration with local cadres, to conduct an inspection in the three townships of Boye County. The actual situation was as follows: in April of that year, more than one hundred trainees from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s training class had come to the county for internships and carried out a registration using ten different forms, yet few problems were actually resolved. Through this inspection, the existing problems had been brought to the attention of the Boye County Party Committee. Aside from those already addressed during the inspection, the committee was continuing to tackle them in conjunction with this year’s cooperative establishment efforts.