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
Is the man you have in mind the present President? Heaven and
earth as well as all living creatures in China and other lands
know what the President swore to when he took the oath of office
as President. Rumours have indeed been circulated, but whenever
they reached the ears of the President he has never hesitated to
express his righteous mind, saying that no amount of pressure
could compel him to change his determination. All officials who
have come into close contact with the President have heard such
sentiments from the lips of the President on not a few occasions.
To me his words are still ringing in my ears. General Feng Kuo-
chang has conveyed to me what he was told by the President. He
says that the President has prepared a "few rooms" in England, and
that if the people would not spare him he would flee to the refuge
he has prepared. Thus we may clearly see how determined the
President is. Can it be possible that you have never heard of this
and thus raise this extraordinary subject without any cause. If
the situation should become such that the President should be
compelled to carry out his threat and desert the Palace, what
would you say and do then?
Or, perhaps, you are measuring the lordly conduct of a gentleman
with the heart of a mean man, saying to yourself that what the
President has been saying cannot be the truth, but, as Confucius
has said, "say you are not but make a point to do it," and that,
knowing that he would not condemn you, you have taken the risk. If
so, then what do you take the President for? To go back on one's
words is an act despised by a vagabond. To suggest such an act as
being capable of the President is an insult, the hideousness of
which cannot be equalled by the number of hairs on one's head. Any
one guilty of such an insult should not be spared by the four
hundred million of people.
XII. THE CHOU AN HUI AND THE LAW
Next let me ask if you have read the Provisional Constitution, the
Provisional Code, the Meeting and Association Law, the Press
Regulations, the various mandates bearing on the punishment of
persons who dare conspire against the existing form of state? Do
you not know that you, as citizens of the Republic, must in duty
bound observe the Constitution and obey the laws and mandates? Yet
you have dared openly to call together your partisans and incite a
revolution (the recognized definition in political science for
revolution is "to change the existing form of state"). As the
Judiciary have not been courageous enough to deal with you since
you are all so closely in touch with the President, you have
become bolder still and carry out your sinister scheme in broad
daylight. I do not wish to say what sort of peace you are planning
for China; but this much I know, that the law has been violated by
you to the last letter. I will be silent if you believe that a
nation can be governed without law. Otherwise tell me what you
have got to say?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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