In short, the action taken by Ni Shih-chung and others is nothing
short of open rebellion. From the legal point of view, any
suggestion of compromise would be absurd. It has already been a
fatal mistake for the President to have allowed them to do what
they like, and if he again yields to their pressure by dissolving
Parliament, he will be held responsible, when the righteous troops
rise and punish the rebels. If the President, deceived by ignoble
persons, take upon himself to dissolve the assembly, his name will
go down in history as one committing high treason against the
Government, and the author of the break between the North and the
South. The President has been known as the man by whose hands the
Republic was built. We have special regard for his benevolent
character and kind disposition. We are reluctant to see him
intimidated and misled by evil counsels to take a step which will
undo all his meritorious services to the country and shatter the
unique reputation he has enjoyed.
The unrolling of these dramatic events was the signal for the
greatest subterranean activity on the part of the Japanese, who
were now everywhere seen rubbing their hands and congratulating
themselves on the course history was taking. General Tanaka, Vice-
Chief of the Japanese General Staff, who had been on an extensive
tour of inspection in China, SO PLANNED AS TO INCLUDE EVERY
ARSENAL NORTH OF THE YANGTSZE had arrived at the psychological
moment in Peking and was now deeply engaged through Japanese
field-officers in the employ of the Chinese Government, in pulling
every string and in trying to commit the leaders of this
unedifying plot in such a way as to make them puppets of Japan.
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