CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 95

2

roads as a convict and Pêng K'ai-shêng is to be imprisoned for one year. Sung Chih- k'un, an expectant Chih-hsien, commanding a battalion of Kuangtung troops, and Hu Tien-yu, a military licentiate, commanding a battalion of Yunnan troops, are to be cashiered, while Sung Chih-k'un is forbidden for ever to return to the public service. Major Wang Hung-kuei, commanding a battalion of Yünnan troops, is also ordered to be cashiered, but allowed to remain in the army to redeem his errors. These sentences are ordered to be put into execution forthwith as a warning to others.

1

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government i

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[45561]

No. 1.

93

2497

[December 31, 21 JA. 19

SECTION 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 31.) (No. 553.) Sir,

Peking, December 9, 1908. WITH reference to my despatch No. 478 of the 26th October, I have the honour to inclose translation of the Decree mentioned in my telegram No. 196 of the 3rd instant. It was issued immediately after the enthronement of the Emperor, and amounts to a manifesto of the unalterable intention of the Court and Government to carry out the Decrees and dying instructions of the late Emperor and Empress-Dowager in regard to constitutional Government. The eighth year of the new reign, 1916, is given as the limit of time for the completion of the programme of Government reform, and it is generally understood that the statesmen in power intend to follow the advice of the Empress-Dowager and accomplish the necessary changes during the minority of Hsuan-t'ung. In fact, it seems that the minority offers the best of opportunities for the peaceful consummation of the transition from autocratic to parliamentary rule.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

(Translation.)

Inclosure in No. 1.

Extract from the "Gazette," December 3, 1908.

Deerce.

NOW that we have entered upon the great inheritance and have completed the ceremonies of our accession, we ponder ever more deeply, with anxious care and awe, upon. the precepts of those before us, and gaze with respect on the system of govern- ment handed down by our successive ancestors based as it is upon the fear of Heaven, and the example of our fathers in diligently ruling and loving the people.

All the work left unfinished by our predecessor must now be reverently and diligently completed, and whereas on the 1st day of the eighth month of the present year the late Emperor, at the command of the late august Empress-Dowager, issued a Decree strictly enjoining on all officials the duty of making full preparations within nine years for the promulgation of a Constitution at the expiry of that period, and the issue of an Imperial Proclamation convoking a Parliament, and the whole Empire with one accord accepted this announcement with respectful gratitude, it now becomes the duty of all, from ourselves downwards to the lowest officer of the State, reverently to carry out the Decrees which have been issued by the mandate of Her late Majesty, and adhere to the eighth year of Isuan-t'ung as the limit of time from which there can be no withdrawal, and towards which our hopes must be directed.

No high officer, whether in the capital or the provinces, will be permitted on any account to regard this matter idly, or to delay in the performance of his duty towards this end. All should therefore use their most loyal endeavours and bestir themselves to establish the Constitution on such a basis that the Court and people will equally enjoy peace, and that the souls of their late Majesties may be solaced in Heaven at the foundation of a system of government to last for untold ages. fervent hope.

Such is our

[2049 hh-

-1]