File No. 893.011/18.

Chargé MacMurray to the Secretary of State.

[Extract.]
No. 709.]

Sir: I have the honor to enclose for the information of the Department a memorandum on constitutional reform in China, in which the Chinese Secretary of the Legation, Dr. C. D. Tenney, outlines the history of constitutional development up to the present time, when a committee of ten, already appointed, is about to undertake the drafting of the permanent constitution.

I have [etc.],

J. V. A. MacMurray,
[Inclosure.]

Memorandum by the Chinese Secretary.

constitutional reform in china.

As President Yuan Shih-K’ai has now announced the appointment of a committee to draft a permanent constitution for China, it is interesting to recapitulate briefly the action which has been taken by the Chinese Government in the direction of constitutional reform since the beginning of the agitation.

The proposition to introduce reform into the old machinery of the Chinese Government originated with the Manchu Court rather than with the people. After the return of the Court to Peking in 1902, the Empress Dowager and her official advisers began to cast about for means to strengthen the position of the Throne in’ respect to the people, as well as to strengthen China in her relations with foreign countries. They were led to believe that the half-understood principles of representation of the people would be the remedy for the ills under which China was suffering.

On the 16th of July, 1905, Duke Tsai Tsê, Hsu Shih-Ch’ang, Tuan Fang and Tai Hung-Tzu were appointed to go abroad to study the various forms of government to be found in other lands and to report to the Throne. After the return of these officials, constitutional reform was taken up actively by the Imperial Government.

On the 6th of June, 1906, an Office of Investigation of Governmental Methods was established, and five days later an edict was issued announcing the purpose of the Court to give the country a constitution. Other edicts followed during the next two years, arranging various minor details in the work of preparation, until, on the 27th of August, 1908, the famous Constitutional Edict was sprung upon the world.3 This was a proclamation of a constitution with detailed regulations for the establishment of representative institutions, local, provincial and national, and the new form of government was to be put into full operation in the year 1917, after a carefully prepared program of preparation to extend over nine years.

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During the years 1909, 1910 and 1911 the country was deluged with new regulations on all the various matters covered by the elaborate program of August, 1908.4 The reports and regulations were drawn up with a wearisome prolixity and detail. Meanwhile the hot-heads among the young scholar class were becoming impatient at the delay in the inauguration of representative government and began pressing the Court to shorten the period of preparation laid down in the August 1908 edict. The position of the Court was also weakened by the death of the forceful Empress Dowager in November 1908 and by the dismissal of Yuan Shih-K’ai from the Grand Council on January 1, 1909. Thereafter the feeble Prince Regent and his Councillors were unable to withstand the pressure of the young scholar class. On the 30th of January, 1910, the Prince Regent refused to hasten the time for the organization of a national parliament.5 Before the end of the year, however, on November 4, 1910, he issued another edict promising the opening of Parliament in the year 1913.6

Meanwhile the Constitutional Assembly (Tzu Chêng Yüan), which had been organized October 4, 1910, became more and more insistent and turbulent while the Prince Regent and his advisers became more panic-stricken. On the 5th of November, 1911, an edict was issued ordering the Parliament to be organized as soon as the elections could take place.

Besides clamoring for the speedy opening of Parliament, the Constitutional Assembly persistently pressed for the completion of a formal constitution. Finally, on the 5th of November, 1910, Prince Pu Lun and Duke Tsai Tsê were appointed by the Throne Constitutional Law Commissioners to draft the constitution. Owing to the insistence of the Assembly that the representatives of the people should have a voice in deciding the terms of the constitution, the Throne ordered, November 2, 1911, that the draft be submitted to the Assembly for discussion and approval. This body at once drew up nineteen resolutions embodying the fundamental principles of a constitution and demanded that the Emperor should take a solemn oath to respect these fundamental principles. This was done in the Ancestral Temple on November 26, 1911. By this time, however, the Revolution had already commenced. Before the end of November a Provisional Government had been established in the Yangtze Valley. On the 10th of December, 1911, the Prince Regent resigned. On the 12th of February, 1912, the Manchus abdicated. Yüan Shih-K’ai became Provisional President of the Chinese Republic on the 10th of March, 1912.7

With the change of government from monarchy to republic, all the work done on the national constitution previous to 1912 became null and void and the whole question entered on a new phase. At the commencement of the republican era the people were represented in the provincial assemblies as organized under the Empire, and by a Provisional National Assembly which had been hastily organized at Nanking under the auspices of the Revolutionary party. The Constitutional Assembly (Tzu Chêng Yüan) at Peking dissolved with the end of the Empire and its functions were assumed by the Provisional Assembly at Nanking as the Ts’an-i Yüan or Advisory Council, the election of the members of which was hasty and irregular. This Advisory Council was reorganized and moved to Peking in March, 1912.8

On the 10th of March, 1912, a Provisional Constitution of fifty-six articles was passed by the Advisory Council.9 This constitution aimed to have all the power of the Central Government in the hands of a Parliament, the President being a figurehead and the Premier the chief executive officer. This remained in force until the dissolution of the Provisional National Assembly in January, 1914.10

A Provisional National Assembly (Chung I Yüan) was convened in Peking in April, 191311 and for nearly a year formed, with the Advisory Council (Ts’an-i Yüan) as upper house, a Provisional Parliament. Meanwhile provincial assemblies were organized under Republican auspices in the spring of 1913. The National Assembly elected Yüan Shih-K’ai Permanent President on October 6, 191312, but his views of a president’s functions differed widely [Page 46] from those of the Democratic party (Kuo Min Tang) in the National Assembly and the strife was brought to a summary ending on November 4, 1913, by the President’s expulsion of the members of the Kuo Min Tang from the National Assembly.13 On November 26 the President organized an Administrative Conference or Political Council (Chêng Shin Hui I) to give advice on governmental affairs.14 On January 10, 1914, the President, acting on the advice of the Political Council, dissolved the National Assembly15, and in February and March he also dissolved the local government bodies and the provincial assemblies. Thus all representation of the people was temporarily done away with, and the Provisional Constitution of March 10, 1912, became a dead letter. On January 26, 1914, the President issued a mandate ordering the formation of a Constitutional Compact Conference (Yüeh Fa Hui I) which convened on the 18th of March, 1914.

On the 1st of May, 1914, the President proclaimed an Amended [Revised] Provisional Constitution of sixty-eight articles.16 This Constitution provides for a highly centralized form of government. It is now in force. By this Provisional Constitution various details are left to the Constitutional Compact Conference (Yüen Fa Hui I) to work out. Articles 59–63 contain the procedure for drawing up the Permanent Constitution. Article 59 provides that this Constitution shall be drafted by a Committee composed of persons not exceeding ten in number elected by the “Council of State” (Tsan Cheng Yüan). This body, the Tsan Chêng Yüan, was organized by Presidential mandate on May 26, 1914. It consists of seventy members appointed by the President and is supposed to contain experts in different lines capable of giving him advice on governmental matters. Its most important function is to give the color of popular assent to the actions of the President. This body has now nominated the committee of ten to draft the Permanent Constitution, which will be promulgated by the President when drafted without reference to any elected representative body of the Chinese people. The following ten men compose the committee to draw up the Permanent Constitution: Li Chia-Chu; Liang Ch’i-chao; Yen Fu; Wang Tung-pen; Wang Shih-chêng; Ta Shou; Ma Liang; Ssu Yu; Tsêng Yi-chang; Yang Tu. They are all men of high standing, representing fairly the moderate Progressives. Needless to say, they all favor the centralized form of government outlined in the Provisional Constitution of May 1, 1914.

Charles D. Tenney
,
Chinese Secretary.