Comrade Xiaoping:

Regarding the Shandong disaster situation contained in this document, please immediately inquire with Shu Tong[1] by telephone, asking them whether they have paid attention to this matter and what relief measures have been taken.

Mao Zedong
Morning of March 5
[1]
Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[2]
This instruction was written on the cover of Issue No. 2429 of the *Internal Reference* compiled and printed by the Xinhua News Agency on February 26, 1958. That issue of the *Internal Reference* carried a report titled "Disaster Situation in Lightly Affected and Unaffected Areas of Shandong Worsens Daily, with Grain Shortages, Begging, and Outward Flight Among Victims Becoming Quite Serious."
[3]
Shu Tong, then First Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.