Immediately following the opening of the meeting at 340 p.m. Wang Ching-wei moved that Tsai Yuan-pei be elected chairman and the motion was carried with unanimity.
Mr. Tsai, upon taking the chair, made a-short report of the purpose of the meeting of the day and requested the members to exchange jews freely on any question that) might come up for discussion.
'The first motion was proposed! by Wang Ching-wei who stated that since there were 36 members preent, constituting a quorum, the meeting should be declared asthe first formal session of the preli mary conference and the motion' was carried, The next question brought up for discussion was the shooting incident! of November 22 in Nanking when several students were shot "while holding a popular celebration of the success of the Western Expedition, Jagainst Tang Song-chi. Teal Yuan-pel and Tan' Yen-kai, who were appointed by the Government to investigate the affair, made a detailed report of the incident. The mecting, after a full consideration of the circumstances decided to institute judicial inquiry by a special court and to suspend those who have been publicly charged as being respon-[sible for the affair.
Following the disposal of this Jquestion, Wang Ching-wei moved that, in view of the imminent convention of the 4th Plenary Session, Jo manifesto to be issued by the entire body of Central Committees: shall be prepared; ite draft to. be submitted to the preliminary conference for consideration. Mr. Wang. suggested that in the declaration all the doubtful and mistaken pointe, contained in the declaration of the National Congress should be rectified, whereupon Li Chi-sen moved that special emphasis should be laid upon the refutation of the communist principles incorporated in that declaration, Tai Chi-: no alo discussed the motion a offered three suggestions, rezardin the contents of the manifesto of the 4th Plenary Session. Finally, it was [decided that Wang, Ching.wei, C. Wu, Tai Chi-tao, Tan Yen-kai, and "Ting Wel-feng be appointed member of the Drafting Committee for manifesto and that the draft be submitted to the next meeting for Fourthly, the attention of the meeting was called to the Central Special Committee which has been the bone of contention of the many factions and a lengthy discussion fol. lowed, ending in the adoption of the resolution of abolition of this Committee. Tan Yen-kai was the fist to speak on the question, Wanj Ching-wei then argued that he opposed the Central Special Committee because the organization of the Committee was not legal and. regular. Mr. Wang made it clear that his attitude must not be interpreter as an attack on the mem-libers of the Committee, most of whom are members of the Central Ex. ecutive Committee. Tsai Yuan-pei then explained that the Special Committee was created by force of ci cumstances and, as these circum. /stances were no longer existent, there seemed no necessity for the further existence of the Committee, Other members also discusse) the matter, jand they all agreed that the 'Special Committee should be abolished, and that the Central Executive Committee be ordered to resume its function to act in its place, pending! the conclusion of the 4th' Plenary: Session.
The organization of the various departments of the Central Party Meadquarters was aleo discussed at length, following the passing of the two above-mentioned resolutions, Opinions differed, some favouring adopting the existing of dividing the Headquarters into eight departments, namely, Departments of Organization, of Publicity, of Farmers, of Workers, of Merchants, and the Overseas Department, and others holding that complete re-organization of the Central Party Headquarters was nec sury 30 a9 to avoid the overlapping of work and conflict of jurisdiction, After lengthy discussion, Li Shihtseng, Tai Chi-tao, Kan Nai-kuang, and Chen Kuo-fu were uppointed to draft regulations governing the organization of the Heudquarters and to submit their recommendations for the consideration of the conference at a later meeting, The memorandum of General Li Chung-jen was then presented.
Tengthy memorandum, setting forth his views a9 regards the perative measures immediately to be adopted by the conference in order to solidify the Kuomintang and to retrieve the position of the Nationalist Government, he, among other proposals, submitted for the approval of his colleagues, the following measures which are being seriously considered by the con ference:
1, That exact connotation of the Ming Song principle be given and publicly announced by the Party, differentiating it from Communism:
2. That those who have, either voluntarily or otherwise, been Known as "Lefts" be ordered by the Party to define their attitude, understanding and interpretation of the Party's principles; That financial control be centralized so that the danger of one military authority holding certain territory for his own maintenance may never arise; 4, That the control of all military authorities be unified, all private enlisting of soldiers being absolutely. prohibited und insubordination immediately and severely dealt with; 5. That all laws of both the Party' and the Government be strictly ad-bored to, no exceptions being allowed except by the highest proper authorities; and 6. That a definite anti-Communist policy be formulated by the conference and publicly proclaimed so as to enable all people to understand where the Kuomintang and the Nationalist Government stand in gard to this particular problem of Further Dise Dee, 7.
The ten riembers of the Central Executive Committee who requested the postponement -of the prelimin"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.