esident had no hand in its drafting--one
argument being sufficient to prove that, namely the deliberate ignoring
of the fact that Parliament had been called into being by virtue of
article 53 of the Nanking Provisional Constitution and that under
article 54 its specific duty was to act as a grand constitutional
conference to draft and adopt the Permanent Constitution, article 55
furthermore giving Parliament the right summarily to amend the
Provisional Constitution before the Promulgation of the permanent
instrument, should that be necessary. Provisions of this sort would
naturally carry no weight with generals of the type of Chang Hsun, of
whom it is said that until recent years he possessed only the most
elementary education; but it is a dismal thing to have to record that
the Conservative Party in China should have adopted a platform of brute
force in the year of grace, 1917.

MANDATE DISSOLVING PARLIAMENT

In the 6th month of last year I promulgated a Mandate stating that
in order to make a Constitution it was imperative that Parliament
should be convened. The Republic was inaugurated five years ago and
yet there was no Constitution, which should be the fundamental law
of a nation, therefore it was ordered that Parliament be re-convened
to make the Constitution, etc., at once.

Therefore the main object for the re-convocation of Parliament was
to make a formal constitution for the country. Recently a petition
was received from Meng En-yuen, Tu-chun of Kirin, and others, to the
effect that "in the articles passed by the Constitution Conference
there were several points as follows: 'when the House of
Representatives passes a vote of want of confidence against the
Cabinet Ministers, the President may dismiss the Cabinet Ministers,
or dissolve the said House, but the dissolution of the House shall
have the approval of the Senate.' Again, 'When the President
dismisses his Prime Minister, it is unnecessary for him to secure
the counter-signature of the Cabinet Ministers.' Again 'when a bill
is passed by the Two Houses it shall have the force of the law.' We
were surprised to read the above provisions.

"According to the precedents of other nations the Constitution has
never been made by Parliament. If we should desire a good and
workable Constitution, we should seek a fundamental solution. Indeed
Parliament is more importan