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
Let me therefore lay down a simple definition of what a
Constitution is before discussing whether the contentions of the
critics are reasonable. My opponents will agree with me that the
main principle of a constitutional government is that the
legislative organ should always balance the executive and that the
exercising of the administrative power is always limited to a
certain extent. They will also agree that the most important point
of a so-called constitutional monarchy is that the monarch should
act as a figurehead, and that the establishment of a responsible
cabinet is an indispensable accompaniment. If these simple
principles are recognized then we must put up the theory for
discussion. Let us then raise the question who shall be the
monarch. In plain words, is the person in our mind the President?
or any other person? (In view of the repeated declarations of the
President that he will never consent to become an Emperor, this
suggestion on my part is a gross insult to his character, but I
crave to excuse myself as this is only mere speculation and
supposition.) What shall we do with the President if we find
another man? The President, having so long borne the burdens of
the State, will certainly be only too willing to vacate his post
to live in retirement as far as his own person is concerned, but
can we imagine that the country will allow the President to
retire? If not, then are we going to ask the President to form a
responsible cabinet under a figurehead monarch? Even if we take it
for granted that the President, out of love for the country, would
be willing to sacrifice his own principles and yield to the wish
of the country, it will be dangerous indeed if he--a person on
whom the whole nation depends--is placed in the path of
parliament. Therefore the contention that a constitutional
monarchy will be attained if a person other than the President be
made a monarch is false and baseless.
Shall we then make the present President a monarch? Of course the
President will not consent to this. But leaving this aside let us
suppose that the President, in consideration of the permanent
welfare of the country, is willing to sacrifice everything to
satisfy the wish of the people, do we expect that he will become a
mere figurehead? A figurehead monarch is, to adapt the saying of
the west a fat porker, a guinea-pig, that is, good as an expensive
ornament. Will it be wise to place so valuable a personage in so
idle a position at a time when the situation is so extremely
critical?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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