File No. 893.011/18.
[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.
[Page 45]
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.
Peking
,
July 26, 1915
.
