Chapter 63 Letters from the masses must be taken seriously

(May 16, 1951) All central bureaus, branch bureaus, provincial party committees, district party committees, city party committees, prefectural party committees, and county party committees; the party groups of the people's governments of major administrative regions, provinces, municipalities, prefectures, and counties, and the party groups of various departments of the Central People's Government: We must pay attention to the people's correspondence, handle the people's letters properly, and meet the legitimate demands of the masses. We must regard this matter as a way for the Communist Party and the people's government to strengthen ties with the people, and do not adopt bureaucratic methods that are ignored lightly. manner.If there are a lot of letters from the people and it is difficult to handle them personally, an appropriate number of specialized agencies or persons should be set up to handle these letters.If there are not many letters and the person or the secretary can handle them, don't set up another person.The following is a report on the handling of letters from the people in the first three months of this year by the Secretary's Office [1], which is dedicated to handling letters from the people. I send it to you for your reference. I think the views of this report are correct.

Mao Zedong May 16, 1951 Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Refers to the report to Mao Zedong on April 30, 1951 by the Secretary Office of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on the handling of letters from the masses from January to March.The report classified and counted nearly 20,000 letters from the masses received during this period, outlined the problems reflected in the letters, and the handling of these letters.The report also stated that "there are still more than 9,000 letters of tribute written by local organizations and mobilized masses, and some of them are still being sent here. In this case, it is impossible to reply to each letter, and we are going to give a general reply to this place." .Mao Zedong wrote a comment on this: "It is not good to organize the masses to write letters of tribute in batches. Don't do this in the future."