New Britain herald., 1918-01-08


futility of his ambition, however,
Yuan shih-kai sought to pacify gthe
people by the organization Of the re
sponsibile cabinet under the leader
ship Of Tuan Chi-jui
LII Yuan-hung, Yuan's successor,
claimed to be a man of no party. He
retained Tuan Chi-jui's cabinet with
out any substantial change. But the
parliament, dissolved by Yuan Shin
kai and now recalled, was dominated
by the Kuomintang. The old struggle
was then resumed, with the difference
! that whereas under Yuan Shih-kai
| 1t was a struggle between the Kuom-
intang and the monarchically inclined
| faction of the Chinputang, now it was
| between the Kuomintang and the re-
| publican faction of the Chinputang.
The war question brought this
| struggle to an issue The note Of
| President Wilson inviting the neutrals
| to join in declaring war against Ger,
| many caused q deadlock, the cabinet9
! favorlng war action, and the Kuomin-5
| tang element of parliament refusing
to support such an act, because 1T
| came from their opponents who, they
| claimed, were attempting to coerce
| them, although declaring they be-
lieved in the measure itself The
| deadlock became q crisis hanging on
the action of the president. He must
! either dismiss the cabinet, as urged
! by the parliament, or dissolve the
parliament, as proposed by the cabi-
| net and seconded by the military gov
| errors. The president decided to
| take the former measure. The mill
! tary governors forthwith demanded
the dissolution of parliament. The
! ell
| The Kuomintang maintained that the
| president had no such right, and that
| he acted under the coercion of the
! military. The Chinputang men, on
| the other hand, argued that parlia-
ment had not been faithful to it's
| Duties and that the president might
! call q more competent one to take it's
! place if he saw fit.
| After the dissolution of parliament
| Tuan Chi-jui returned, and with him
| his cabinet, although one or two posi-
| tons in the cabinet were given to
| kuomintang men, only to be dis
| missed in 81 short time. These men
| were Chen in-tao, minister of fl
| nance, and San IIung-yi, minister of
| the interior. Meantime the kuom-
intang members of the dissolved par
| lament maintained that they were dis
! missed in violation of the constitution
and gathered themselves in Canton
proposing to go on with their work in
| defiance to the Picking authority
| government
What They Stand For.
It would be rather difficult to state
precisely just what principles each of
the two parties stands for. In gen.
| eral we may say that the Kuomintang
| represents the liberal and the radical
| elements of the country and believes
in the predominance of the legislative
/ over the executive; in the development
of a large degree of provincial auton-
or2y as rather decentralized form of
| government In distinction from the
Kuomintang the Chinputang advocates
q strong centralized form of govern
nent and the predominance of the
| executive over the legislative. The
| political parties in China are far from
! being we'll developed, and in this stage
| Of construction and readjustm ent 1t IS
! hard to define precisely their plat
| forms.
Besides those two main parties
there is q distinct third party, the
Poiyangpai, although many Of it's
members Identify themselves with the
/ Chinputang. 1t may be called the
| military party, not in the sense that
they stand for the military develop
ment of the country, but that the
members are mainly military men, the
general and the military governors OF
! the provinces who played an impor-
tant part in the dissolution Of the
parliament and are now the real an
tagonists Of the Kuomintang. Most
Of the members are Of conservative
character, monarchically inclined.
The Peiyangpai is probably older than
either Of the other two parties. In
! the main it is an outgrowth, although
with important changes, of the AMI !
wei and the Chilli groups of the
Manchu regime. The present exist |
ence of two more or less distinct fac |
tons within the party may be traced
to this earlier division.
It is inaccurate, if not misleading, |
TO speak Of the Quomntang and Chin !
natang as the northern and the south |
ern parties Many of the leaders of |
the Kuomintang are from the north |
ern part of the country, and on the !
other hand, many important politi- |
clans from the south belong to the !
Chinputane Political cleavage in |
China is not geogra phical. Nor is it !
economic for as yet there have not |
been developed any distinct economic |
interests il the two sections Of the |
country. The cleavage is mainly po-
Itical in the sense that the differences
of the parties center on the political
problems of tho country.
ARMY REFORMS.
Amsterdam, ian. S.--The Hungar-