ABSTRACT
[The letter] proposes that the Guomindang “set up, in Shanghai or Guangzhou, a strong and powerful executive committee, with the mission of combining our efforts to promote the activity of party members, and develop propaganda on a broad scale.… We cannot simply follow along imitating the orientation of the feudal warlords, who use armed force to seize political power and occupy spheres of influence. To do this will give people the impression that we and the warlords belong to the same family. To use the old methods and the old armies to build a new China is not only illogical, but is absolutely impossible to carry out in practice. The old armies have ten times as many soldiers as we do. We can only use new devices, adopt a new orientation, and create a new force. In our dealings with the citizens, we must unite with the merchants, the students, the peasants, and the workers, and moreover draw them to rally around the flag of our party. The new army, built from among the people, will use new methods and a new spirit of friendship to defend the republic.” In the letter, the hope was expressed that Sun Yatsen would not inconsiderately place his faith in the warlords of the various southern provinces. “The crimes [of the southern warlords] are in no way less than those of the northern warlords. … We request you, sir, to leave Guangzhou, to proceed to the center of public opinion, Shanghai, and when you get there to call together a national assembly (such as the one you discuss in ‘The Three-power Constitution,’ but not limited simply to mass demonstrations). In this way, a centralized army that solves the problems of the whole country can be built, a centralized national-revolutionary army can be built. If we act in this way, we will not lose our leading position in the national-revolutionary movement.”
