7. Proscribe the secret service. People are comparing the secret service agents to Chou Hsing and Lai Chun-chen[2] of the Tang Dynasty and Wei Chung-hsien and Liu Chin[3] of the Ming Dynasty because of their lawlessness and violence. Ignoring the enemy and concentrating on our own countrymen, they are committing innumerable murders and insatiably taking bribes; in fact the secret service is the headquarters of the rumour-mongers and a breeding ground of treason and evil. Ordinary people everywhere recoil and turn away in fear from these fiendish brutes of agents. To preserve its own prestige, the government should immediately proscribe these activities of the secret service and reorganize it, defining its duties as exclusively directed against the enemy and the traitors, so that the people's confidence may be restored and the foundations of the state strengthened. This is the seventh point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
   
8. Dismiss corrupt officials. Since the beginning of the War of Resistance, there have been cases of officials netting up to loo million yuan out of the national crisis and taking as many as eight or nine concubines. Conscription, government bonds, economic controls, famine relief and war relief, all without exception have become money-making opportunities for corrupt officials. With such a pack of wolves running wild, no wonder the country's affairs are in chaos. The people are seething with discontent and anger, yet none dare expose the ruthlessness of these officials. To save the country from collapse, drastic and effective steps should immediately be taken to clear out all corrupt officials. This is the eighth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
   
9. Put the Testament of Dr. Sun Yat-sen into effect. The Testament says:
   
For forty years I have devoted myself to the cause of the national revolution with the aim of winning freedom and equality for China. My experiences during these forty years have firmly
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convinced me that to achieve this aim we must arouse the masses of the people. . . .
A most remarkable statement indeed, and we the 450 million people of China are all familiar with it. But the Testament is more often chanted than carried out. Desecrators of the Testament are rewarded while those who honour it in their acts are punished. What could be more preposterous? The government should decree that anyone who dares to violate the Testament and who tramples on the masses of the people instead of arousing them will be punished for profaning Dr. Sun Yat-sen's memory. This is the ninth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
   
10. Put the Three People's Principles into effect. The Three People's Principles are the platform of the Kuomintang. Yet many people, making anti-communism their first duty, are giving up the war effort and doing everything possible to suppress and hold back the people as they rise to resist Japan, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of Nationalism; officials are depriving the people of all democratic rights, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of Democracy, they are ignoring the people's sufferings, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of the People's Livelihood. Such persons pay only lip-service to the Three People's Principles and either ridicule those who seriously try to put them into effect as busy-bodies or severely punish them. Thus, all sorts of fantastic abuses have sprung up and the government's prestige has reached rock bottom. An unequivocal order should immediately be issued for the strict carrying out of the Three People's Principles throughout the country. Those who violate the order should be severely punished and all who carry it out amply encouraged. It is only in this way that the Three People's Principles can at long last be put into effect and the foundations laid for victory in the war. This is the tenth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
   
These ten proposals are essential measures for saving the nation and winning the war. Now that the enemy is stepping up his aggression against China and traitor Wang Ching-wei is running wild, we dare not remain silent on what we feel to be crucial issues. Please accept and act upon these proposals, and great advantage will ensue to the War of Resistance and the cause of national liberation. It is with a keen sense of urgency that we state our views, and we await your considered opinion.
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NOTES
[1]
Szuma Chao was a prime minister of the state of Wei (220-265) who nursed a secret ambition to ascend the throne. The emperor once remarked: "Szuma Chao's intention is obvious to every man in the street."
[p. 396]
[2]
Chou Hsing and Lai Chun-chen were notoriously cruel inquisitors in the Tang Dynasty. They organized a network of spies who wantonly arrested people they disliked and subjected these people to all kinds of torture.
[p. 399]
[3]
Liu Chin and Wei Chung-hsien were eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. The first was a favourite of Emperor Wu Tsung (in the 16th century), and the second of Emperor Hsi Tsung (in the 17th century). They made use of large secret services to persecute and murder those who opposed them.
[p. 399]