[46422]
74
No. 150.
Mr. Alston to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 13.)
(No. 378. Confidential.) Sir,
Peking, September 29, 1913.
I HAVE the honour to report that the third Cabinet since the establishment of the Provisional Republican Government was formed on the 11th instant under the Premiership of Hsiung Hsi-ling
The country had been without a substantive Premier ever since Chao Ping-chun went on leave in May last, and the effect of the recent rebellion on the political parties and the National Assembly rendered an early reconstruction of the Cabinet inevitable.
The Premier holds the portfolio of Finance, and General Tuan Chi-jui and Admiral Lui Kuan-bsun continue at the head of the army and navy, respectively, while the remaining Ministries have been distributed as follows:-
Foreign Affairs, Sun Pao-chi,
Interior, Chu Ch'i-chʻien.
Justice, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao. Education, Wang Ta-hsieh.
Industry, Chang Ch'ien.
Communications, Chou Tzu-ch'i,
No appointment has been made to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which will shortly be reamalgamated with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Hsiung Hsi-ling was Minister of Finance in the first Republican Cabinet under Tang Shao-yi, and his name will be remembered in connection with the Crisp loan, which he negotiated after his resignation of that post; he has recently been acting as Military Governor of Jehol.
Sun Pao-chi is an ex-Minister to France and Germany, and was Governor of Shantung up to the time of the revolution,
Chu Chi-ch'ien was Minister of Communications in the last Cabinet.
Liang Ch'i-ch'ao is the best known disciple of the reformer Kang Yu-wei, and was proscribed with his master after the coup d'État of 1898, since when, as a journalist in Japan, he has advocated the cause of limited monarchy in China.
Wang Ta-hsieh was Minister to Great Britain in 1905, and subsequently to Japan.
Chang Chien is a noted Chinese scholar and promoter of industrial enterprises; he also claims to be an authority on salt administration.
Chou Tzu-chi, as a member of the old Board of Foreign Affairs, accompanied Prince Tsai Chen où his coronation mission to England in 1911; as Acting Minister of Finance he was responsible for the Belgian loan of March 1912, since which date he has been Governor of Shantung.
The Cabinet, though nominally non-party, is markedly conservative in composition, and the absence of any member of the Nationalist party and the practically unanimous acceptance of the nominations by the National Assembly mark the defeat which the Radicals have suffered through the suppression of the rebellion which their extreme wing supported.
The President somewhat boldly claims he has collected a "Cabinet of all the talents," each member of which will assume his full share of responsibility and make Cabinet Government a reality, with the aid-incidentally-of a further foreign loan. It is true he enjoys at present a greater measure of parliamentary support than either of the previous Cabinets, but the fate of Tang Shao-yi should serve as a warning against any tendency to ignore the effective power still wielded by the President himself.
The new Cabinet has adopted a policy of administrative retrenchment which, however necessary, cannot be popular among the hordes of recently appointed republicaú officials, and a section of the native press continues to foster the officially denied rumours of friction between Premier and President, and to hint that the formal election of the latter, which is now in sight, will of necessity entail the nomination of a new Cabinet when the Government ceases to be provisional.
In view of China's present difficulties, it is perhaps too much to expect any marked change in the external policy of the Cabinet, though the prompt acceptance of the Japanese demands in connection with the Nanking incident may be regarded as a hopeful sign.
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