Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE
December 21, 1939
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Comrade Norman Bethune,[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was
around fifty 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.[2] 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 even 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. NOTES
1. The distinguished surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian
Communist Party. In 1936 when the German and Italian fascist bandits invaded
Spain, he went to the front and worked for the anti-fascist Spanish people. In
order to help the Chinese people in their War of Resistance Against Japan, he
came to China at the head of a medical team and arrived in Yenan in the spring
of 1938. Soon after he went to the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area. Imbued with
ardent internationalism and the great communist spirit, he served the army and
the people of the Liberated Areas for nearly two years. He contracted blood
poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and died in Tanghsien, Hopei, on
November 12, 1939
2. See J. V. Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism", Problems of Leninism, Eng.
ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1954, pp. 70-79.
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Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.
HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org
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Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
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