Mao Zedong letter to former Labour leader Clement Attlee expected to fetch up to £150,000 at auction

The 1937 letter is one of the very first communications between the Communist leader and any Western politician

Chinese police and tourists stand underneath a picture of late leader Mao Zedong outside the Forbidden City in Tiananmen Square (Getty Images )

One of the very first communications between China’s Communist Party leader Mao Zedong and a Western leader is to be auctioned this week, and is expected to sell for as much as £150,000.

The letter, signed by Mao and sent to the then leader of the Labour Party Clement Attlee who later became Prime Minister, was an attempt to gain support from Britain during Japan’s invasion of China.

Mao sent the letter dated 1 November 1937 from Yan’an, a remote part of north-western China. It was where the Communist party had set up headquarters following a full-scale invasion from Japan, and the letter called for urgent assistance from Britain in the war against Japanese imperialism.

The letter from Mao Zedong to Clement Attlee (PA)

The letter from Mao Zedong to Clement Attlee - showing Mao's signature (PA)

Mao first addresses Mr Attlee “in the name of the Communist Party of China, and on behalf of the whole Chinese people, now engaged in a life and death struggle against the invaders of their country,” who he says send a message of goodwill to the people of Great Britain and the Labour Party.

He then asks Mr Attlee to “lend the support of your Party to any measures of practical assistance to China that may be organised in Great Britain”.

"We believe that the British people, when they know the truth about Japanese aggression in China, will rise in support of the Chinese people, will organise practical assistance on their behalf, and will compel their own Government to adopt a policy of active resistance to a danger that ultimately threatens them no less than ourselves,” he writes.

"Long live the Peace Front of the Democratic Nations against Fascism and Imperialist War."

Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s specialist in books and manuscripts, said Mao’s attempt to elicit British support against Japan is an extraordinarily early instance of the leader engaging in international diplomacy – “and is an exceptionally rare example of Mao’s signature”.

“This is only the second document signed my Mao to appear on the international auction market in recent decades,” he said.

The letter is expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000 when it comes to auction at Sotheby’s in London on 15 December.

Additional reporting by PA