Letter to Huang Yanpei [1]
(December 5, 1960)
Mr. Ren Zhi:
Your kind letter has been received and read; many thanks! After Prime Minister Abbas of Algeria returned home, he gave a statement to an AFP reporter, describing how my advice to him against executing prisoners had a great effect in undermining the enemy forces. This statement was published in a recent issue of “Reference Materials” [2], but it is now difficult to locate. I am therefore enclosing page 41 of the December 2nd afternoon edition of “Reference Materials” [3] for your perusal. The remarks quoted in American publications are precisely those made by Prime Minister Abbas to the French journalist; you may wish to read them.  With best regards,
Mao Zedong
December 5, 1960
[1]
Huang Yanpei, with the courtesy name Ren Zhi, at that time served as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
[2]
See “Key Points of Conversation with Abbas, Prime Minister of the Algerian Provisional Government.”
[3]
This statement appeared in the 3,974th issue of Xinhua News Agency’s “Reference Materials,” compiled and printed on the afternoon of January 22, 1960, under the title “An Analysis by a Reporter from France’s ‘Express’ of Abbas’s Account of His Talk with Chairman Mao.”
[4]
This page carried a Xinhua News Agency dispatch dated January 12, 1960, sent from Geneva, entitled “U.S. Weekly ‘The Nation’ Notes Chairman Mao’s Discussion with Abbas on Prisoner-of-War Policy.” It stated that today’s issue of the American weekly “The Nation” had published an editorial titled “Methods and Effects of Terror,” which summarized as follows:
Algeria

Letter to Huang Yanpei
War has shattered the illusion that torture has long since disappeared along with the Inquisition. In this grim conflict, Algerians have excelled at assassination, while the French have relied on torture—yet neither approach has proved effective. Over the past week or two, both sides have received counsel on this matter from figures of strikingly different persuasions. The Archbishop of Paris and the military chaplain of the French forces jointly issued a pastoral letter addressing the Roman Catholic Church’s responsibilities in this regard. Meanwhile, Chairman Mao’s paternal admonitions to Abbas during his visit to Beijing complemented the cardinal’s preaching against the use of cruel methods in warfare. According to Tunisia’s newspaper L’Action, Mr. Mao told Mr. Abbas that, throughout the wars against Japan and the Kuomintang, the Chinese Communists had never executed a single prisoner. Though coming from a Communist leader, Mao’s advice is nonetheless worthy of serious reflection.