peasants. It is a great mistake to assume that a few tens of thousands of Chinese revolutionaries are enough to permeate this ocean of the peasantry. Well then, we must seek other ways.
The second way is that of influencing the peasantry through the apparatus of the new national revolutionary power. It cannot be doubted that in the newly liberated provinces a new power will arise after the pattern of the Canton government. It cannot be doubted that this power and the apparatus of this power will have to satisfy the most urgent demands of the peasantry, if it wishes to advance the revolution. The task of the Communists and of the revolutionaries in China altogether is to penetrate into the apparatus of this new power, to bring this apparatus nearer to the masses of peasants and to help the peasant masses to satisfy their most urgent demands by means of this apparatus, whether it be by expropriating the landowners of their land, or by reducing taxation and rents—whatever the circumstances demand.
The third way is that of influencing the peasantry through the revolutionary army. I have already spoken of the extraordinary importance of the revolutionary army in the Chinese revolution. The revolutionary army of China is the force which first penetrates into the new provinces, which first becomes known amongst the bulk of the peasantry, and by which the peasant forms his opinion of the new power, of its good or bad qualities, The attitude of the peasantry towards the new power, towards the Kuomintang and towards the revolution in China as a whole, depends in the first place on the behavior of the revolutionary army, on its behavior towards the peasantry and towards the landowners, on its readiness to help the peasants. If we bear in mind that there are doubtful elements in plenty which have joined the revolutionary army in China, that these elements may alter the aspect of the army for the worse, we shall understand the great importance of the political aspect of the army and,
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