[Footnote 3: Woodhead, H. G. W., editor, _The China Year Book, 1939_, Shanghai, n. d., Ch. IX, "The Kuomintang and the Government," contains a detailed summary of the first two sessions of the People's Political Council (p. 231-7). Quigley, Harold S., "Free China," _International Conciliation_, No. 359 (April 1940), includes a judicious appraisal of the work and meaning of the Council in its first two and one-half years (p. 137-8).] As a technique of representation, the Council's recruitment system is novel. The membership was, while the Council's total was at 200, divided into the following four categories: _Group A_: representatives of the Provinces and Special Municipalities--88; _Group B_: four representatives for or from Mongolia and two for or from Tibet--6; _Group C_: representatives for or from the overseas Chinese--6; _Group D_: representatives of cultural, professional, and economic bodies, or persons who have been active in political leadership--100. There were no elections. In the case of Group A candidates, nominations were made by municipal or provincial governing bodies in joint session with the Kuomintang Party organ of corresponding location and level. Group B candidates were nominated by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. Group C candidates were nominated by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission in the Executive _Yüan_. Group D candidates, which included the representatives of the Communists and independent Left, were nominated by the Supreme National Defense Council. Two candidates could be presented for each seat on the Council. Subject to a minor detour or two on qualifications or for other reasons,[4] the final selection or election was made by the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. [Footnote 4: Wang Shih-chieh, "The People's Political Council," cited, p. 346 _ff._ The new system, inaugurated early in 1941, provided for 90 members to be directly elected by Provincial and Municipal People's Political Councils.] Thus, an independent or Leftist, whose life had been more or less in danger for years, because of his hostility to the Kuomintang and its policies, might find himself nominated for the Council by the Kuomintang's highest government-supervising agency, and elected by the Kuomintang's highest Party agency. Leaders of the hitherto suppressed, still technically illegal parties and factions--which meant all save the Kuomintang--were designated representatives through the fiction of selection for individual merits. They might take an active share in hammering out policy, and--on the same day--find themselves legally debarred from overt public expression of their own party work. By this device, the Kuomintang provided a safety-valve for opposition without touching the apparatus of its own power.