Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/127

 looked upon by the militarist party as their death-warrant; whilst Article 82, which strictly defines the President's action when a vote of want of confidence in the Cabinet Ministers is passed, contains the very essence of the whole constitutional fight. Article 92 dealing with the President's suspensive veto has been looked upon as hardly less important: and the two concluding Articles, in which Audit is so strictly defined and the control over the National Purse retained by this method after supplies have been actually voted—has been one of the bitterest subjects of dispute. Finally, just before the rupture, a proposal to tack on to the Constitution an additional chapter on local government, dealing with the governing of the provinces, had taken such concrete form that a complete draft had been made; and as in this draft the powers given to Provincial Assemblies were very large, the sweeping-away of the Tu-chün system was imminent.

In June, 1917, although the question of an immediate declaration of war against Germany and Austria was the technical reason, this parliamentary question brought the expected crisis. For the second time in the brief life of the Republic the party with whom power really rested—the military element—saw its existence