The Fight for the Republic in ChinaPutnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
History
The Fight for the Republic in China
Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
China -- History -- Republic, 1912-1949; China -- Politics and government
the imperial house encompassed its own destruction. Once His
Excellency Yuan Shih-kai stated in a memorial to the throne that
there were only two alternatives: to give the people a
constitutional government or to have them revolt. What happened
afterwards is a matter of common knowledge. Therefore I say that the
government which the imperial family attempted to form was not a
constitutional government.
Mr. Ko: Thank you for your discussion of the attempt of the imperial
household to establish a constitutional government; but how about
the Provisional Constitution, the parliament and the cabinet in the
first and second years of the Republic? The parliament was then so
powerful that the government was absolutely at its mercy, thereby
disturbing the peaceful condition of the country. The people have
tasted much of the bitterness of constitutional government. Should
you mention the name of constitutional government again they would
be thoroughly frightened. Is that true?
Mr. Hu: During the first and second years of the Republic, in my
many conversations with the members of the Kuo Ming Tang, I said
that the republic could not form an efficient method of control, and
that there would be an over centration of power through the adoption
of monarchical methods of ruling, knowing as well as I did the
standards of our people. When the members of the Kuo Ming Tang came
to draw up the Provisional Constitution they purposely took
precisely the opposite course of action and ignored my suggestion.
It may, however, be mentioned that the Provisional Constitution made
in Nanking was not so bad, but after the government was removed to
Peking, the Kuo Ming Tang people tied the hand and foot of the
government by means of the Cabinet System and other restrictions
with the intention of weakening the power of the central
administration in order that they might be able to start another
revolution. From the dissolution of the Nanking government to the
time of the second revolution they had this one object in view,
namely to weaken the power of the central administration so that
they could contend for the office of the president by raising
further internal troubles in China. Those members of the Kuo Ming
Tang who made the constitution know as well as I that China's
republic must be governed through a monarchical administration; and
therefore the unreasonable restrictions in the Provisional
Constitution were purposely inserted.
Mr. Ko: What is the difference between the constitutional government
which you have proposed and the constitutional government which the
Manchu Dynasty intended to adopt?
Mr. Hu: The difference lies in the proper method of procedure and in
honesty of purpose, which are imperative if constitutional
government expects to be successful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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