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In Memory of Norman Bethune
The surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian
Communist Party. After working at the front during the Spanish Civil War
he headed a medical team to China, reaching Yenan in the spring of 1938.
He contracted blood poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and
died on 12 November 1939. This article by Mao Zedong was written just
over a month later - 21 December 1939
Comrade Norman Bethune, a member of the Communist Party
of Canada, was around 50 when he was sent by the Communist Parties of
Canada and the United States to China; he made light of travelling thousands
of miles to help us in our War of Resistance against Japan. He arrived
in Yenan in the spring of last year, went to work in the Wutai Mountains,
and to our great sorrow died a martyr at his post. What kind of spirit
is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese
people's liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism,
the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn.
Leninism teaches that the world revolution can only succeed if the proletariat
of the capitalist countries supports the struggle for liberation of the
colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the proletariat of the colonies
and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat of the capitalist countries.
Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice. We Chinese Communists
must also follow this line in our practice. We must unite with the proletariat
of all the capitalist countries, with the proletariat of Japan, Britain,
the United States, Germany, Italy and all other capitalist countries,
for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation
and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world.
This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose
both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.
Comrade Bethune's spirit, his utter devotion to others
without any thought of self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility
in his work and his great warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the
people. Every Communist must learn from him. There are not a few people
who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the light and shirking
the heavy, passing the burdensome tasks on to others and choosing the
easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of themselves before
others. When they make some small contribution, they swell with pride
and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no warmth
towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and apathetic.
In truth such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted
as devoted Communists. No one who returned from the front failed to express
admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained
unmoved by his spirit. In the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area, no soldier
or civilian was unmoved who had been treated by Dr. Bethune or had seen
how he worked. Every Communist must learn this true communist spirit from
Comrade Bethune.
Comrade Bethune was a doctor, the art of healing was his
profession and he was constantly perfecting his skill, which stood very
high in the Eighth Route Army's medical service. His example is an excellent
lesson for those people who wish to change their work the moment they
see something different and for those who despise technical work as of
no consequence or as promising no future.
Comrade Bethune and I met only once. Afterwards he wrote
me many letters. But I was busy, and I wrote him only one letter and do
not know if he ever received it. I am deeply grieved over his death. Now
we are all commemorating him, which shows how profoundly his spirit inspires
everyone. We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him.
With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man's ability
may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded
and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who
is of value to the people.
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