Letter to UK politician from Mao sells for $908,000

22:23, 17 December 2015

BEIJING. KAZINFORM - A letter from Mao Zedong appealing to the leader of the British Labour Party in 1937 for helpagainst Japanese invaders has sold for 605,000 pounds ($908,000) at auction in London, China Daily reports.

In the letter, typed in English and signed by Mao, a founder of New China, asks ClementAttlee, Labour leader and a future prime minister, to lend the support of his party to "anymeasures of practical assistance". The buyer at Tuesday's auction was a Chinese private collector, auction house Sotheby's saidin a statement. The letter was one of the first communications between the Chinese leader and a Westernpolitician, and only the second letter from Mao to be sold at auction in decades, Sotheby'ssaid. It is dated Nov 1, 1937, and was written in Yan'an in northwestern China, where the RedArmy was based after the 1934-35 Long March. In the letter, Mao expressed solidarity with the British people and hoped they would urge thegovernment to help him resist the Japanese invaders, saying this was "a danger thatultimately threatens them no less than ourselves". "Long live the Peace Front of the Democratic Nations against Fascism and Imperialist War!"concludes the letter, which was also signed by Zhu De, one of the founding generals of thePeople's Liberation Army.

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