avalry had
meanwhile also been massed on the main street; but it was only when the
report spread that a Japanese reporter had been killed that the order
was finally given to charge the mob and disperse it by force. This was
very rapidly done, as apart from the soldiers in plain clothes the mass
of people belonged to the lowest class, and had no stomach for a fight,
having only been paid to shout. It was nearly midnight, after twelve
hours of isolation and a foodless day, that the Representatives were
able to disperse without having debated the war-question. The upshot
was that with the exception of the Minister of Education, the Premier
found that his entire Cabinet had resigned, the Ministers being
unwilling to be associated with what had been an attempted coercion of
Parliament carried out by the Military.

The Premier, General Tuan Chi-jui, however, remained determined to carry
his point, and within a week a second dispatch was sent to the House of
Representatives demanding, in spite of what had happened, that the
declaration of war be immediately brought up for debate. Meanwhile
publication in a leading Peking newspaper of further details covering
Japan's subterranean activities greatly inflamed the public, and made
the Liberal political elements more determined than ever to stand firm.
It was alleged that Count Terauchi was reviving in a more subtle form
Group V of the Twenty-one Demands of 1915, the latest Japanese proposal
taking the form of a secret Treaty of twenty articles of which the main
stipulations were to be a loan of twenty million yen to China to
reorganize the three main Chinese arsenals under Japanese guidance, and
a further loan of eighty million yen to be expended on the Japanization
of the Chinese army. As a result of this publication, which rightly or
wrongly was declared to be without foundation, the editor of _The Peking
Gazette_ was seized in the middle of the night and thrown into gaol; but
Parliament so far from being intimidated passed the very next day (19th
May) a resolution refusing to consider in any form the declaration of
war against Germany until the Cabinet had been reorganized--which meant
the resignation of General Tuan Chi-jui. A last effort was made by the
reactionary element to jockey the President into submission by
presenting to the Chief Executive a petition from the Military Governors
assembled in Peking demanding the immediate dissolution of Parliament.
On this proposal be