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 Premier, General Tuan Chi-jui, however, remained determined to carry
his point, and within a week a second dispatch was sent to the House of
Representatives demanding, in spite of what had happened, that the
declaration of war be immediately brought up for debate. Meanwhile
publication in a leading Peking newspaper of further details covering
Japan's subterranean activities greatly inflamed the public, and made
the Liberal political elements more determined than ever to stand firm.
It was alleged that Count Terauchi was reviving in a more subtle form
Group V of the Twenty-one Demands of 1915, the latest Japanese proposal
taking the form of a secret Treaty of twenty articles of which the main
stipulations were to be a loan of twenty million yen to China to
reorganize the three main Chinese arsenals under Japanese guidance, and
a further loan of eighty million yen to be expended on the Japanization
of the Chinese army. As a result of this publication, which rightly or
wrongly was declared to be without foundation, the editor of _The Peking
Gazette_ was seized in the middle of the night and thrown into gaol; but
Parliament so far from being intimidated passed the very next day (19th
May) a resolution refusing to consider in any form the declaration of
war against Germany until the Cabinet had been reorganized--which meant
the resignation of General Tuan Chi-jui. A last effort was made by the
reactionary element to jockey the President into submission by
presenting to the Chief Executive a petition from the Military Governors
assembled in Peking demanding the immediate dissolution of Parliament.
On this proposal being absolutely rejected by the President as wholly
unconstitutional, and the Military Governors soundly rated for their
interference, an ominous calm followed.
Parliament, however, remained unmoved and continued its work. Although
the draft of the Permanent Constitution had been practically completed,
important additions to the text were now proposed, such additions being
designed to increase parliamentary control and provide every possible
precaution against arbitrary acts in the future. Thus the new provision
that a simple vote of want of confidence in the Cabinet must be followed
by the President either dismissing the Cabinet or dissolving the House
of Representatives--but that the dissolution of the Lower House could
not be ordered without the approval of the Senate--was generally
recognized as necessary to destroy the last vestiges of the Yuan
Shih-kai régime. Furthermore a new article, conferring on the President
the right to dismiss the Premier summarily by Presidential Mandate
without the counter-signature of the other Cabinet Ministers, completed
the disarray of the conservatives who saw in this provision the dashing
of their last hopes.[25]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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