Chapter 12 8. Struggle for the restoration of the student union and the rescue of arrested classmates

Facing the reality, the executive committee members and all the students of our Peking University Student Union launched a struggle to demand the restoration of the student union, oppose the expulsion of patriotic students, and rescue the arrested students. On the morning of April 1, the Peking University Student Union issued a statement: "The Student Union is organized by representatives elected by all the students, and the school authorities cannot destroy it arbitrarily." Until all students make a decision to stop the activities of the student union, all work will continue as usual.He also tried to rescue the arrested students and asked the school to withdraw the decision to expel the four students.

On the afternoon of April 1, the student union sent executive committee members Liu Yuzhu and Ge Peiqi to meet the principal Jiang Menglin, demanding to resume the activities of the student union, revoke the order to expel the four students, and release the arrested students on bail.President Jiang was still angry, and said angrily: Carrying the coffin into Peking University is an insult to me, Jiang Menglin; your student union called students from other schools to Peking University for a meeting without my approval, which is exceeding your authority; It cannot be recovered." Jiang also said: "The arrested students can no longer be given asylum." Since then, President Jiang refused to meet representatives of the student union.

However, the staff of our student union did not give up rescue of the arrested students and support for the expelled students because of Jiang Menglin's stubborn attitude.We work in the following ways: (1) Mobilize the classes and departments of the expelled and arrested students to go to Jiang Menglin one after another to petition, asking him to release the arrested students on bail and withdraw their orders to expel the four students; (2) Using various social connections to interview celebrities who sympathize with the student movement, ask them to show their patriotism to the relevant military and political authorities, and persuade them to release the arrested students as soon as possible;

(3) Contact the friends, classmates, and fellow villagers of the arrested students to visit the army prison and deliver clothes. The more people go, the more mental pressure they can put on the reactionary authorities. Adopting the above methods will play a certain role in rescuing the arrested students.For example, from April 2 to 4, many student representatives from each class went to Jiang Menglin many times to petition; at 11 am on April 3, there were 66 student representatives and 6 female student representatives from 34 classes , went to petition Jiang Menglin together, and talked about it until two o'clock in the afternoon, and refused to let him go home.In order to get rid of the predicament, he finally said, I have interviewed my classmates too many times today, and I am mentally tired, so I will talk about it another day.The representatives just exited his office.After three days of reasoning struggle and "fatigue bombing", Principal Jiang finally changed his attitude of refusing to release the arrested students on bail.

He said: "I have repeatedly stated that I will never help my classmates who were released on bail. I think about the relationship between teachers and students, and I can do my best to help." In this way, the work of rescuing the arrested classmates has been carried out.From April 13 to May 13, 9 male and female students of Peking University were arrested and released on bail one after another.Due to the efforts of all parties to rescue, male and female students arrested in other schools were also released one after another. Although the students suffered a little setback in the "March March 1st" coffin-carrying parade, I think it is still very meaningful in view of the dangerous environment faced by the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement at that time: it shows the backbone of Chinese youth.Since February 1936, in order to meet the needs of Japanese imperialism, the Kuomintang government promulgated the "Emergency Measures for Maintaining Public Security", the reactionaries have frantically suppressed the patriotic movement of students in Pingjin and even the whole country.A large number of patriotic students were arrested, detained or massacred! The "March March 1st" coffin-carrying parade showed the Japanese imperialists and reactionaries that Chinese youth cannot be intimidated, have backbone, and can fight to the end for the cause of the liberation of the Chinese nation!