No one who knows the real China can deny that.
The Continental arrangement of the Members' desks and the raised
tribune of the Speaker, with its rows of clerks and recorders,
make an impression of orderliness, tinged nevertheless with a
faint revolutionary flavour. Perhaps it is the straight black
Chinese hair and the rich silk clothing, set on a very plain and
unadorned background, which recall the pictures of the French
Revolution. It is somehow natural in such circumstances that there
should occasionally be dramatic outbursts with the blood of
offenders bitterly demanded as though we were not living in the
Twentieth Century when blood alone is admittedly no satisfaction.
The presence of armed House police at every door, and in the front
rows of the strangers' gallery as well, contributes to this
impression which has certain qualities of the theatre about it and
is oddly stimulating. China at work legislating has already
created her first traditions: she is proceeding deliberately
armed--with the lessons of the immediate past fully noted.
This being the home of a literary race, papers and notebooks are
on most Members' desks. As the electric bells ring sharply an
unending procession of men file in to take their seats, for there
has been a recess and the House has been only half-filled. Nearly
every one is in Chinese dress (pien-yi) with the Member's badge
pinned conspicuously on the breast.
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