A reception committee for returning or visiting Tibetan compatriots was set up on January 6 in Lhasa, capital of the Xizang Autonomous Region, with Tianbao (Tibetan) as chairman and Basang (Tibetan) and eight others as vice-chairmen. Both Tianbao and Basang are vicechairmen of the region's revolutionary committee.

Speaking at the inaugural meeting, Basang declared that all Tibetan compatriots living abroad, including Dalai, are welcome to return to China and take up permanent residence in the motherland, to visit relatives and friends or tour the country.

She said: "We will welcome them no matter when they return and. we will receive them cordially. Proper arrangements will be made for those who wish to remain and settle down. Those who wish to leave again will be provided with all necessary facilities and given a courteous send-off." Tibetan compatriots abroad, she added, are free to return and leave again, for this will enhance mutual understanding and clear all doubts remaining in their minds. Moreover, it will help fulfill the long-cherished desire of Tibetan compatriots to meet and reunite with their relatives and friends.

"In accordance with the Party's policies," she stressed, "the local government has entrusted special personnel to look after the property left behind by border residents who have gone abroad. Perishables have been converted into money and put in the bank to be returned to the owners on their return. The people's government will help repair or build those houses which have fallen into disrepair or collapsed during the owners' absence. Returnees who have difficulties will receive aid from the government. We always mean what we say, and we hope that the Tibetan compatriots now living abroad will cast away unnecessary misgivings."

The most patriotic act for Tibetan compatriots living abroad, Basang noted, is to uphold the unification of the motherland and oppose the separation of Xizang from the People's Republic of China which is a big family of various nationalities. "In so doing, you will remain our kith and kin, our friends and members of one and the same family. It is our hope that you will have a. clear assessment of the situation as soon as possible, return to the embrace of the motherland and, together with other fraternal nationalities, make your contributions to the four modernizations In Xizang." Over the past two decades, she added, the people of various nationalities in Xizang have been living a happy life and working to the best of their ability to create a bright future for themselves. "When you come back," she said, "you will see all this for yourselves. We hope Dalai Lama will place the interests of national unity above everything else and make his contributions to safeguarding the unification of our motherland. If you do so, it will prove that you really care for the happiness of the Tibetan people."

(This article appears on page 3, No. 3, 1979)