Extract

I realise that to stress the need for thorough site investigation, in your Journal, is preaching to the converted. However, I believe the following quotations on this subject from the essays of an eminent national leader, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, will be of interest to your readers.

“You can't solve a problem? Well, get down and investigate the present facts and its past history! When you have investigated the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it. Conclusions invariably come after investigation, and not before. Only a block-head cudgels his brains on his own, or together with a group, to “find a solution” or “evolve an idea” without making any investigation. It must be stressed that this cannot possibly lead to any effective solution or any good idea.”

“Oppose Book Worship”

(May 1930), 1st pocket ed., p. 2.

“A fact-finding meeting need not be large, from three to five or seven or eight people are enough. Ample time must be allowed and an outline for the investigation must be prepared; furthermore, one must personally ask questions, take notes and have discussions with those at the meeting. Therefore one certainly cannot make an investigation, or do it well, without zeal, a determination to direct one's eyes downward and a thirst for knowledge, and without shedding the ugly mantle of pretentiousness and becoming a willing pupil.”

“Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys”

(March and April 1941), Selected Works, Vol. Ill, p. 12.

“A commander's correct dispositions stem from his correct decisions, his