In giving effect to the decisions reached by the _Yüan_ Meeting, the _Yüan_ itself issues orders in its own name for matters which are of general interest, or which cannot be handled by any single Ministry or Commission. If the problem is within the province of a particular agency, the _Yüan_--through its Secretariat--addresses the appropriate form of intragovernmental communication, and the decision is then set forth as the order or act of the agency involved. The following subjects are within the jurisdiction of the Executive _Yüan_: (1) laws or legal problems submitted for promulgation by the Legislative _Yüan_; (2) the budget, also passed _pro forma_ by the Council of State and put into legal form by the Legislative _Yüan_; (3) declarations of war and peace, on the motion of the Legislative _Yüan_; (4) appointment and discharge of the higher ranks of officials; (5) matters which cannot be settled by a single Ministry or Commission; (6) other matters which the _Yüan_ President sees fit to introduce for discussion or decision. The Executive _Yüan_ has far outstripped all other _Yüan_ in war-time growth. Its central position, the urgency of most government business, and the need for speed have led to this. Executive exercise of the ordinance-making power has led to the gradual desuetude of the Legislative _Yüan_, which has found ample work in the preparation of the Draft Permanent Constitution and the attempt to systematize legislation in view of rapid territorial and administrative change. The Executive _Yüan_, by controlling personnel, usually short-circuits the functions of the Examination and Control _Yüan_; and the Judicial _Yüan_ has never had practical political parity. Hence, the five-power system must be regarded as a system with strong executive, weaker legislative, examinative, and censoral, and dependent judicial divisions. Above the five powers, the Supreme National Defense Council exercises its august authority; within them, the Executive stands forth; and to them, in the course of the war, a new agency, almost comparable to a sixth _yüan_, has sprung forth with an elaborate bureaucracy of its own: the Military Affairs Commission. THE MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMISSION