12
3. In remitting to the province the amount of provincial taxes allocated to it, the district shall have the right to retain a portion thereof, not exceeding 40 per cent. of the entire amount.
4. The Provincial Government shall have no right to dispose of the property and
self-government funds of the district.
5. In case of calamities, natural or otherwise, or on account of shortage of self-government funds, the district may apply to the Provincial Adminis trative Council for, and, with the approval of the Provincial Assembly, may receive, subsidies from the Províncial Treasury.
6. The district shall be under obligation to observe national laws and provincial
laws.
Art. 129. The division of provincial and district taxes shall be decided upon by the Provincial Assembly,
Art. 130. The province shall not enforce special laws in one or a few districts, but those concerning the common welfare of the province shall not be included in this restriction.
Art. 131. The district shall have full executive power in matters of self-govern. ment in the district; and the province shall not interfere except in matters relatingį to punishments provided by the provincial law.
Art. 132. National administrative affairs in the province or district, besides being executed by officials appointed by the national Government, may be executed by the provincial or district self-government administrative organs by delegation.
Art. 133. In the event of the provincial or district self-governing administrative organs, in the execution of national administrative affairs, violating the law. the national Government may impose punishment in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Art. 134. The provisions of this chapter shall apply to places where districts, but not provinces, have been created.
Art. 135. Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet, and Tsinghai may, in conformity with the common wish of the local inhabitants, be divided into two grades, the province and the district. to which the provisions of this chapter shall apply, but pending the creation of province and district their administrative system shall be prescribed by law.
Chapter XIII—Amendments to as well as Interpretation and Validity of the Constitution.
Art. 136. Parliament may introduce Bills for the amendment of the Constitution.
Unless such Bills be approved by upwards of two-thirds of the members of each House present, they shall not be adopted.
Unless it be endorsed by upwards of one-fourth of the total membership of his House, no member of either House shall propose an amendment to the Constitution.
Art 137. The amendment of the Constitution shall be undertaken by the Constitution Conference.
Art. 138. The form of government shall not be a subject for amendment. Art. 139. Ambiguities in regard to the meaning of the Constitution shall be interpreted by the Constitution Conference.
Art. 140. The Constitution Conference shall be composed of the entire member- ship of Parliament.
Unless there be a quorum of upwards of two-thirds of the total membership of Parliament no such aforementioned conference shall be held; and unless upwards of three-fourths of the members present vote in its favour no amendment shall be passed; but in the interpretation of any ambiguous point a decision may be reached with the approval of upwards of two-thirds of the members present.
Art. 141. Except by amendments made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, the Constitution shall never lose its validity, whatever change or development may come to pass.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[F 185/185/10]
No. 1.
58
[January 17.]
SECTION 1.
Peking, November 26, 1923.
Sir R. Macleay to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston. (Received January 17, 1924.)
(No. 688.) My Lord,
IN paragraph 6 of my despatch No. 586 of the 17th October last, reporting on developments in the political situation in China, I mentioned that the new permanent Constitution was formally promulgated on the 10th October, the Chinese National Day, simultaneously with Ts'ao Kun's installation as President, and I have now the honour to transmit herewith a translation of the Chinese text of this Constitution as prepared by a member of the Wai-chiao Pu and published in the journal of a local Sino-foreign society of good standing (the Chinese Social and Political Science Association). No more authoritative English version has yet appeared. The Chinese text was published in the "Government Gazette of the 18th October.
.
2. The history of the drafting of the Chinese Constitution, which has been proceeding intermittently for the past ten or twelve years, is briefly as follows: In December 1911, after the outbreak of the revolution, the National Council at Nanking passed a provisional Constitution, which has been nominally in force, except when suspended by Yuan Shih-kai, until recently, Yuan having been elected provisional President in March 1912, the seat of the Republican Government was removed from Nanking to Peking, where a National Assembly or Parliament, met in the following year. The Kuo Min Tang party were strongly represented in this Assembly, but, cowed by Yuan's suppression of the rebellion of 1913, they were induced to hasten the passing of the chapter of the permanent Constitution relating to the Presidential election, which was duly promulgated in October 1913, just before Yuan Shih-kai's election and installation as President, and which has up till recently remained the only part of the Constitution actually passed into law. After Yuan Shih-kai's formal inauguration as President on the 10th October, 1913, Parliament pushed on with the drafting of the remainder of the permanent Constitution, but differences between it and the President as to the extent of the powers to be wielded by the latter soon became acute, until, in November of that year, Yuan dissolved the Kuo Min Tang, and thus unseated over 400 members of Parliament, leaving the Assembly without a quorum. The President then created a Political Council of his own nominees, and, acting nominally on its advice, dissolved Parliament early in 1914 and replaced it by a new Assembly, or Council of State," consisting likewise of his own nominees, which produced in May 1914 a new and different provisional Consti- In December 1914 a further new tution giving large powers to the President. Presidential Election Law was passed, the effect of which was practically to make the Presidency hereditary in Yuan's family. Both these instruments were abrogated at the time of Yuan's unsuccessful attempt to make himself Emperor in 1915-16, and after his death in June the original Parliament reassembled at Peking in August 1916. The preparation of the permanent Constitution was then taken up anew, with the draft of 1913 as a basis, and was continued until Parliament was again dissolved in June 1917 by President Li Yuan-hung acting under pressure from the Northern militarists. (Apart from the chapters on national powers and local self-government, the present permanent Constitution follows in the main the lines of the work done in 1916-17.) The dissolution of Parliament in 1917 was followed by Chang Hsun's abortive attempt to restore the monarchy, by the summoning of the new (and so-called bogus ") Parliament of the Northern militarists for the election of Hsn Shih-chang as President in 1918, and eventually by the expulsion of Hsu and the restoration of Li Yuan-hung as President in 1922, and the reassembling of the old Parliament at Peking for the third occasion in August of that year. The drafting of the permanent Constitution was then taken up once again, but owing to political intrigues proceeded but slowly, until Li Yuan-hung was once more driven out of office in the summer of the present year. The completion of the Constitution was, however, included in the plans of the Chibli party for the election of Ts'ao Kun as President, doubtless with a view to giving prestige to the new Government and President and legality to their acts, and was, it is said, eventually secured, like the election of Tsão to the
[498 r-1]
B
¦
!
me
Fice
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.