Over the question of certain telegrams to be
communicated to the Japanese Government, of which he had been kept
in ignorance, President Li Yuan-hung took a firm stand; with the
result that the Premier, deeply offended, abruptly left the
Council Chamber, handed in his resignation and left the capital--a
course of action which threatened to provoke a national crisis.
Fortunately in President Li Yuan-hung China had a cool and
dispassionate statesman. At the first grave crisis in his
administration he wished at all costs to secure that the assent of
Parliament should be given to all steps taken, and that nothing so
speculative as a policy which had not been publicly debated should
be put into force. He held to this point doggedly; and after some
negotiations, the Premier was induced to return to the capital and
resume office, on the understanding that nothing final was to be
done until a popular endorsement had been secured.
On the 10th March the question was sent to Parliament for
decision. After a stormy debate of several hours in the Lower
House the policy of the Government was upheld by 330 votes to 87:
on the following day the Senate endorsed this decision by 158
votes to 37. By a coincidence which was too extraordinary not to
have been artificially contrived, the long-awaited Germany reply
arrived on the morning of this 10th March, copies of the document
being circulated wholesale by German agents among the Members of
Parliament in a last effort to influence their decision.
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