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 accomplishment of only these things that we shall without
difficulty gain our object by the conclusion of a Defensive
Alliance with China.
For us to incite the Chinese revolutionists and malcontents to
rise in China we consider the present to be the most opportune
moment. The reason why these men can not now carry on an active
campaign is because they are insufficiently provided with funds.
If the Imperial Government can take advantage of this fact to make
them a loan and instruct them to rise simultaneously, great
commotion and disorder will surely prevail all over China. We can
intervene and easily adjust matters.
The progress of the European War warns Japan with greater urgency
of the imperative necessity of solving this most vital of
questions. The Imperial Government can not be considered as
embarking on a rash project. This opportunity will not repeat
itself for our benefit. We must avail ourselves of this chance and
under no circumstances hesitate. Why should we wait for the
spontaneous uprising of the revolutionists and malcontents? Why
should we not think out and lay down a plan beforehand? When we
examine into the form of Government in China, we must ask whether
the existing Republic is well suited to the national temperament
and well adapted to the thoughts and aspirations of the Chinese
people. From the time the Republic of China was established up to
the present moment, if what it has passed through is to be
compared to what it ought to be in the matter of administration
and unification, we find disappointment everywhere. Even the
revolutionists themselves, the very ones who first advocated the
Republican form of government, acknowledge that they have made a
mistake. The retention of the Republican form of Government in
China will be a great future obstacle in the way of a Chino-
Japanese Alliance. And why must it be so? Because, in a Republic
the fundamental principles of government as well as the social and
moral aims of the people are distinctly different from that of a
Constitutional Monarchy. Their laws and administration also
conflict. If Japan act as a guide to China and China models
herself after Japan, it will only then be possible for the two
nations to solve by mutual effort the Far East Question without
differences and disagreements. Therefore to start from the
foundation for the purpose of reconstructing the Chinese
Government, of establishing a Chino-Japanese Alliance, of
maintaining the permanent peace of the Far East and of realizing
the consummation of Japan's Imperial policy, we must take
advantage of the present opportunity to alter China's Republican
form of Government into a Constitutional Monarchy which shall
necessarily be identical, in all its details, to the
Constitutional Monarchy of Japan, and to no other. This is really
the key and first principle to be firmly held for the actual
reconstruction of the form of Government in China. If China
changes her Republican form of Government to that of a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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