All the reform organizations in China have opposed the convocation of this prospective parliament and what we are pleased to describe as the liberal element in the Tuchunate has openly denounced it. The reasons for this opposition are apparent. Last autumn all officialdom rose in opposition to General Wu Pei-fu's scheme for a national assembly which would have given all the literate elements in China real representation. It was said that Wu's ideas were crude and were not practical. This may or may not have been true, but the big militarists did not stop to speculate upon the feasibility-of the plan. They opposed it frankly enough because a national assembly such as Wu suggested would have been representative and would have assumed many of the prerogatives of Government which it is to their profit and pleasure to retain.
Having made summary disposition of Wu's scheme, they then proceeded to announce the convocation of a parliament of their own. This in itself was enough to arouse suspicion and was interpreted as a challenge by everyone who did not happen to be in the clique that was stage-managing Peking. It is assumed that if provincial delegates do now assemble in Peking they will be nothing more than the selected representatives of the various Tuchuns. It is feared that if such an assembly meets it will simply be the tool of the nor-them Tuchunate and will be used to sanction and legalize acts for which the Tuchuns and the high officials in Peking would otherwise stand personally responsible. The liberal organizations and the liberal Tuchuns would much prefer to see Pekin, officialdom continue +o shoulder the responsibility of its unapproved acts, so that if there is ever a turn in the tables and a time of reckoning, the guilty can be held and the nation will be in a position to repudiate whatever has been done that is opposed to national interests.
The assumptions and the fears of those who oppose the elections are undoubtedly grounded upon bitter experience, and if there is a revolt Jagainst Peking in sight or if the foreign Powers are going to consider withdrawing recognition from Peking, the opponents should be sustained. If things are going to remain as they are, however, if the Powers are going to continue to recognize the Tuchun organ in Peking as the Republican Government for China and thereby sanction its acts, and if the provinces which oppose the elections are not prepared to withdraw their nominal allegiance, it might be argued that the energies of the reformers would be better spent in fighting for representation through the elections than in obstructing them. The question is at least debatable.
Experience in Peking would tend te prove that even a bad parliament is better than none. A parliament may do nothing constructive, it may delay the execution really constructive policies, and 't may make itself ridiculous by squabbling and rioting; but a parliament does serve to delay and advertise governmental acts which are opposed to national interests. The old Kuomintang parliament was never appreciated in Peking until it was missed. Everyone heaved a sign of relief when it was, dissolved, but it was not long before it was felt that a very effectual check upon official peculation and all the evils of Government by cliques had been lost. With a parliament functioning all questions of appointments of high officials, public expenditures, negotiation of loans, execution of treaties and contracts have to be submitted to it to receive the stamp of legality. Business of these various sorts, not submitted to parliament but carried through on the personal authority of a President, a Premier, a Cabinet Minister or a Tuchun, is frankly illegal and can be repudiated at any time by the nation. Even the An-suites did not have sufficient hold upon their parliament, carefully picked and purchased as it was, to risk submitting their loan deals and contracts to it, hence these deals are in no sense binding upon China which accounts for the present anxiety of the Japanese who are trying to get tangible security for some of the money that they gave to the Anfu Government.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.