[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's(Government.]
8198449
[February 2010
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL,
(
[6205]
(No. 45.) Sir,
No. 1.
SECTION 4.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received February 20.)
Peking, January 31, 1911. IN my despatch No. 458, Confidential, of the 20th December, 1910, reporting on the progress of the struggle between the Senate and the Grand Council, I expressed the opinion that doubtless some compromise would be found to tide over the few weeks which then remained of the Assembly's session. This forecast has proved to be in the main correct; but that the compromise should have approached so nearly in effect to a moral defeat of the representative body was, I think, unexpected by all observers of the contest.
Although the Senate in its session of the 19th December decided, by a large majority, to submit a further memorial impeaching the individual members of the Grand Council by name, and thus again to challenge the Council's position of supremacy as asserted in the edict of the previous day, it was only at its session of the 30th December that the body finally approved the memorial of impeachment, a translation of which I have the honour to enclose.* This memorial was merely shelved, and its text has never been officially published; the version, of which the enclosed is a translation, appearing in the columns of a native paper. There is reason, however, to believe that the version is correct, and it will be noted that it differs entirely in form from that resolved upon by the Senate in its session of the 19th ultimo.
It is interesting to trace the manner in which the memorial in such a modified form came to be drafted, since it generally illustrates the concluding phases in the first great struggle in modern Chinese history between the Central Government and a body which, at any rate, claims to represent the nation and the forces of public opinion.
Following up its edict of the 18th December, defining the position of the Senate, vis-à-vis the Grand Council, the Throne further asserted itself in decrees of the 24th and 25th December, the former definitely refusing any further consideration of the question of shortening the period when Parliament should be opened, and the latter ordering that regulations governing the responsible Cabinet be speedily and carefully drafted. The issue of the first of these decrees further terrorised the Senate, who had been preparing to support the Fengtien delegates; and the second, this body at any rate affected to consider, made a second impeachment of the Grand Council no longer necessary. Although at its session of the 19th December the Senate had resolved to impeach the Grand Council a second time, at its next meeting on the 21st, vacillation and divided councils were very noticeable among the members in view of the firm attitude of the Throne. A certain number of the members were not prepared to take the extreme step of risking dissolution; and although on the 24th the memorial of impeachment, as prepared by the committee of six appointed for that purpose, was read and approved, at the Assembly's next meeting of the 26th it was decided by a majority that the impeachment should be dropped. On the following day the Senate was severely criticised for this action in the native press; and, at its next meeting on the 28th, members declared that there was no intention of dropping the impeachment, but they had merely proposed that it should take another form. resolution was passed to this effect, and on the 30th the memorial, as finally presented and shelved, was read and approved by the Senate. On the 3rd January the question of what further action was advisable, in view of the shelving of the memorial, was raised. It was decided that to present a further impeachment was useless, but that a memorial should be drawn up describing the position of the Senate and the circumstances leading to the impeachment. There is, however, no official evidence that such action was taken, and at any rate nothing has eventuated therefrom.
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So ended the first struggle between the Senate and the Grand Council. The Senate concluded its session, which was extended ten days at its own request, on the 11th January, and the Imperial decree of prorogation, of which a translation is enclosed,† appeared on the same date. It bears as usual the signatures of the Grand Councillors, * Impeachment of Grand Conseil. Memorial of Senate. † Prorogation of Senate. Decree of January 11, 1911.
[1909 u-4]