Deng Xiaoping raised the question of reducing the average age of army cadres in his ``Report on the Current International and Domestic Situation'' made on January 11, 1964, at an army-wide conference on political work. He pointed out that this question concerns the whole country and our basic principles; that the contingent of cadres should constantly take in fresh blood, and new successors; and that those communists who are relatively young and politically sound should be trained as successors for our revolutionary cause.