I, the President, who desire to comply with the will of the
populace and to consolidate the foundation of the nation, grant
the request of the Tuchuns and the people. It is hereby ordered
that the Senate and the House of Representatives be dissolved, and
that another election be held immediately. Thus a Constitutional
Government can be maintained. It must be pointed out that the
object for the reorganization of Parliament is to hasten the
making of the Constitution, and not to abolish the Legislative
Organ of the Republic. I hope all the citizens of the Republic
will understand my motives.
A great agitation and much public uneasiness followed the
publication of this document; and the parliamentarians, who had
already been leaving Peking in small numbers, now evacuated the
capital en masse for the South. The reasonable and wholly logical
attitude of the Constitutionalists is well-exhibited in the last
Memorandum they submitted to the President some days prior to his
decision to issue the Mandate above-quoted; and a perusal of this
document will show what may be expected in the future. It will be
noted that the revolting Military Governors are boldly termed
rebels and that the constitutional view of everything they may
contrive as from the 13th June, 1917, is that it will be bereft of
all legality and simply mark a fresh interregnum. Furthermore, it
is important to note that the situation is brought back by the
Mandate of the 13th June to where it was on the 6th June, 1916,
with the death of Yuan Shih-kai, and that a period of civil
commotion seems inevitable.
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