Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/124

 stroying by means of bogus enactments the legal framework on which international recognition of the Republic had been accorded; finally capping it all two years later by an elaborate ballot-fraud whereby he declared himself elected Emperor of the Chinese à la Napoleon and head of a so-called Constitutional Monarchy. That comprises the complete story of the first four years of the rule of Peking over the provinces under the Republic and shows what a hollow mockery it was.

With Yuan Shih-kai's death in June, 1916, the 1913 Parliament returned to the capital—weakened but still determined to consummate its main work, which was the formal passage of a permanent Constitution, the draft of which had been so long complete. In spite of every kind of opposition, such progress was made that in less than a year, with the exception of the seven clauses which follow, the two Houses had passed the completed instrument through its second reading, and would have entirely terminated the work had there not been deliberate military obstruction. The seven disputed clauses were:—

Article 32. The ordinary sessions of the national Assembly shall begin on the 1st August of each year.