Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270

Minutes of Meeting Between General Marshall and Governor Chang Chun, at House 28, Chungking, January 25, 1946, 3 p.m.

Also present: Mr. Shepley3
Colonel Pee

Governor Chang called at General Marshall’s residence to inform him of the progress of the various subcommittees of the Political Consultative Conference. Governor Chang stated that the subcommittee on governmental reorganization had come to agreement on the following matters:

1.
That the organic law of the Republic would be amended to abolish the Supreme National Defense Council and to make the Council of State the highest policy-deciding organ; that the members would be increased to 40 of which 20 would be members of the Kuomintang and 20 members of other parties or no party. (The apportionment of the latter 20 positions had not been settled.) (Dr. Wu4 called later to say a hitch had developed on this agreement.)
2.
That the nominees of the various parties would be sanctioned by the President and in case he disapproved, the party would be required to make a new nomination.
3.
That the appointments to the council of no party affiliation would be nominated by the President and approved by the Council.
4.
That the members to the Council would be responsible to the President and not to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.
5.
That the heads of the 14 ministries and boards of the Executive Yuan would hereafter be known as Ministers of State and that between 3 and 5 additional members without portfolio would be added to the Executive Yuan. The apportionment of the Ministries between the various parties would be made after the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee had ratified the decisions of the Political Consultative Conference and the reorganization of the Executive Yuan had begun. He estimated that this would take place within a month after the conclusion of the PCC deliberations.

Governor Chang stated that the subcommittee was in disagreement on the following points:

1.
Whether the appointment of government officials should reside in the President or in the National Council.
2.
The government’s proposals regarding the emergency powers of the President.
3.
The question of whether important policy matters would have to be decided by two-thirds majority of the Council of State rather than a simple majority. Pie said that in informal discussions with Communist member Tung Pi-wu, Mr. Tung had proposed that the [Page 145] United Nations formula of allowing a majority of the Council to decide on important matters and that a compromise on this line seemed probable.

Governor Chang reported that the subcommittee on the draft constitution was in agreement on the creation of a subcommittee of the PCC to be known as the Draft Constitution Reexamination Committee. The Reexamination Committee would be composed of 25 members representing all parties and citizens of no party and 10 drafting experts. It was agreed that the committee is to finish its study within two months and make a report and that the National Assembly will consider the original draft constitution, the amendments proposed by the PCC and the constitution by the Examination Committee, then the National Assembly will have the advantage of all these views in adopting a constitution.

Governor Chang reported that the Subcommittee on the Constitution had agreed to these fundamental principles:

1.
That the President would eventually be elected by popular vote.
2.
That the Legislative and Control Yuan will be elective and form a bicameral National Assembly with the Legislative having the power of enactment and the Control Yuan having the power of impeachment.
3.
That the members of the Executive Yuan would be responsible to the Legislative Yuan in the manner of the British parliamentary system and that the Executive Yuan could ask the President to dissolve the Yuan, presumably for new elections.
4.
That the Provinces would become the highest unit of self government with the power to establish their own constitution so long as it was not inconsist[ent] with the National constitution and have the power to elect their own Governors.
5.
That the constitution would contain a statement of the rights of the people.

In addition to the three points of disagreements on the reorganization of the government, only one political question remained to be settled by the PCC, Governor Chang said. That was the make up of the National Assembly. He said the government intended to make a final proposal that the Kuomintang withdraw the existing members of its 460 Central Executive Committee men from the present Assembly and that the delegates be increased [to] a number of 600, of whom the Kuomintang would appoint 230 and other parties and no partisans would represent 370.

Governor Chang left General Marshall’s residence to go [to] a meeting of the Military Subcommittee to [at?] which he said he was hopeful that a decision on the remaining military questions would be reached.

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He said he was optimistic that the PCC would complete its work within the next few days with agreement between the several parties on all major questions.

J. R. Shepley
  1. James R. Shepley, member of General Marshall’s staff.
  2. K. C. Wu, Chinese Minister of Information.