CO129-499-4 Canton situation- governor's despatches 18-3-1927 - 22-4-1927 — Page 102

- 71.

103

The grave problem then with which we are now confronted arises from a mistake which has been made by our Party, and we should consider measures to remedy it. At present we are all anxious to solve this question.

A General Meeting of the Central Executive Committee should be held without delay to exercise the highest legislative functions of the Party and unify its leadership by rescinding the alteration that had been made empowering the appointment of a Head. Then the Secretariat

and Political Council should be reorganised and a discussion should be had as to what steps should be taken to establish and extend the power of the Nationalist

Government for purposes of

accomplishing our mission.

leading on the masses and

This is the greatest question

for our Party at present. We Chinese generally suppose that questions as to where the highest authority of a Party should repose do not concern the rank and file and that

a member's duty is merely to obey the orders of his super- visors and support his leaders without asking why. But our Party is built up on the Democratic Centralisation System. Its authority reposes ultimately in all the members of the Party, and any member is entitled to deliberate on any Party problem whether it is of grave import or not. Thus the very lowest branch of our Party can sle go into the details of the question which I have just mentioned in regard to the highest authority of our Party. Mass movements should à priori be open to all. Our Party is an organ for

leading mass movements, and therefore it should also be

open to all. The Nationalist Revolution cannot be accomplished by the few."

also