The most Leftist clique is believed to be the _Hua-chung P'ai_ (Central China Clique), with the National Salvationists' Seven Gentlemen at their core. Deeply sympathetic with the masses, and violently patriotic, this group helped to bring about the war by opposing appeasement. Like-thinking Council members, however affiliated, are believed to fall under the legislative leadership of the Central China Clique. Near to this, still far to the Left of the government, is the _Tungpei P'ai_ (Northeast Clique). The Northeastern Manchurian Chinese officers, exiled in the Northwest, were the first bridge between the Communists and the rest of the country. Since their native provinces and kinsfolk have had almost ten years' Japanese domination, the Northeast group is emphatic in demands for national unity. Communists circulate from one group to the other, always cooperative in offering their leadership on the basis of a United Front, which the Comintern still decrees for the Far East after jettisoning the Popular Fronts of Europe. The two relatively Rightist cliques are the _Ch'ê-yeh Chiao-yü P'ai_ (Vocational Educationists' Clique) and the _Chiao-shou P'ai_ (Professors' Clique). Composed of men still so far from attaining office that they possess perfect freedom of criticism, they therefore stand Left of the government in daily comment, although they may be Right of it in theory. The former group stresses simple, direct problems: it seeks to attack the opium problem, disease, illiteracy, and so forth, without necessarily fighting the social revolution against the landlords. It derives its name from two distinguished leaders of the vocational education movement who have abstained from active political work until finding a forum in the Council. The Professors' Clique is reputedly led by the group of young professors who were eminent in their fields before the outbreak of war, opposed to the government's appeasement policy, but tactful enough not to rebel. They are considered to stand as far Right as anyone on the Council--that is, to discuss politics in terms of soundness of public policy, budgetary reasonableness, immediate practicality, and other common-sense standards, which appear conservative beside the fervid idealism of their colleagues. The description of the _Ssŭ P'ai_ just given is one which exists in the popular credence. A more authoritative source placed the groups in the Council under the following four headings: (1) the Kuomintang and non-Party majority; (2) the _La Jeunesse_ Party and the National Socialists; (3) the Communists; (4) the "Popular Front" group, including the intellectuals and the National Salvationists.