The SUPREME NATIONAL DEFENSE COUNCIL, which transmits commands to The COUNCIL OF STATE, highest governmental agency, which transforms these commands into government orders applicable to NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL, or LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, in the form of ORDERS, ORDINANCES, and LAWS [Footnote 5: The names of agencies and offices in the discussion of government and Kuomintang organization are taken from K'ao-shih _Yüan_ [Examination _Yüan_], _Tang Chêng Chien Chih T'u-piao_ [Charts of Government and Party Development and Organization], Chungking, XXIX (1940), _passim_. This work has not yet been published, since it is a draft printing, to be revised and re-edited before formal publication. The author was allowed to consult a copy through the courtesy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Wang Ch'ung-hui, and the kind assistance of Mr. C. C. Chi of the Party-Ministry of Publicity. These charts, provisional as they are, are by far the most systematic presentation of modern Chinese government structure which the author has ever seen. For a brief commentary on the Council, see the one-paragraph section, _The Supreme National Defense Council_ in Tsiang Ting-fu, "Reorganization of the National Government," _Chinese Year Book 1938-39_, cited, p. 356. Dr. Tsiang, whose other writings on Chinese government have been models of clarity, candor, and concreteness, is obliged to state: "As its major functions are involved in the prosecution of the war, military necessity compels the writer to withhold the details of its organization and work for a later issue."] The power of the Kuomintang is exercised by its Chief [_Tsung-ts'ai_] and its Central Executive Committee, Central Committee, and their respective Standing Committees (discussed below, p. 125 _ff._).