Panchen Erdeni, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Acting Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet, and Wang Feng, Vice-Director of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Vice-Chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission, arrived in Lhasa by plane on June 15. More than a thousand people, lamas and laymen, turned out on the square in front of the Daipung Monastery to greet them.

Chang Ching-wu, representative of the Central People's Government in Tibet and Secretary of the Working Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet, Chang Kuo-hua, Vice-Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet and Commander of the Tibet Military Area Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and Ngapo Ngawang-Jigme, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet, headed the welcoming party.

Cheers, applause, and the sounds of traditional gongs and drums greeted Panchen Erdeni and Wang Feng as they drove into the square. Lamas of the Daipung Monastery carried religious banners and hata (ceremonial scarves) to welcome　Panchen　Erdeni.　 Cheering crowds lined the road as Panchen Erdeni drove to his new palace at Shurtsir Lingka.

Panchen Erdeni left Lhasa for Peking early in April to attend the recent session of the National People's Congress. On the return trip, he, Wang Feng and their party left Sining for Lhasa on June 5 by plane but bad weather detained them for ten days on the way.

On the day following their arrival a banquet in honour of Panchen Erdeni and Wang Feng was tendered by the Working Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet, the Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet and the Tibet Military Area Command.

Panchen　Erdeni, in a speech at the banquet, called on the Tibetan people to rally around the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao to carry out democratic reforms and go all out in building a democratic and socialist Tibet.

"Cruel, dark, feudal serfdom must be abolished, a people's democratic system must be established and the provisions of the Constitution must be carried out in all parts of Tibet," Panchen Erdeni declared.　 "Taking the road of socialism through democratic reforms is the inevitable course of historical development for the people of all nationalities."

It is impossible for the Tibetan people to free themselves from the fetters of poverty and backwardness if democratic reforms are not carried out, he said. "The Tibetan people have been urgently demanding reforms, and following the defeat of the counter-revolutionary armed rebellion, such demands have become more imperative than ever."

In a speech welcoming Panchen Erdeni, Chang Ching-wu said that normal social order had in the main been restored on the whole throughout Tibet. "The task before us," he said, "is to quell the rebellion completely and to mobilize the people to carry out democratic reforms. We warmly welcome the return of Panchen Erdeni to lead the work."

(This article appears on page 4, No. 25, 1959)