That such a miracle should be possible in
extreme Eastern Asia is one more proof that there are no victories
beyond the capacity of the human mind.
Meanwhile, for the time being, in China as in countries ten
thousand miles away, ministerial irresponsibility is the enemy;
that is to say that so-called Cabinet-rule, with the effacement of
the Chief Executive, has tended to make Cabinet Ministers removed
from effective daily control. All sorts of things are done which
should not be done and men are still in charge of portfolios who
should be summarily expelled from the capital for malpractices.
[Footnote: Since this was written two Cabinet Ministers have been
summarily arrested.] But although Chinese are slow to take action
and prefer to delay all decisions until they have about them the
inexorable quality which is associated with Fate, there is not the
slightest doubt that in the long run the dishonest suffer, and an
increasingly efficient body of men take their place. From every
point of view then there is reason for congratulation in the
present position, and every hope that the future will unroll
peacefully.
A visit to Parliament under the new regime is a revelation to most
men: the candid come away with an impression which is never
effaced from their minds. There is a peculiar suggestiveness even
in the location of the Houses of the National Assembly. They are
tucked away in the distant Western city immediately under the
shadow of the vast Tartar Wall as if it had been fully expected
when they were called into being that they would never justify
their existence, and that the crushing weight of the great bastion
of brick and stone surrounding the capital would soon prove to
them how futile it was for such palpable intruders to aspire to
national control.
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