Part 16 (1/2)

CENTRAL POLITICAL COUNCIL

1. Secretariat for Civil Affairs 2. Secretariat for Military Affairs 3. Commission for the Disciplinary Punishment of Political Officials

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL OF STATE

1. Commission of Military Affairs 2. Board of General Staff 3. Directorate-General of Military Training 4. Military Advisory Council 5. National Reconstruction Commission 6. Academia Sinica 7. National Economic Council 8. Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Commission

I. EXECUTIVE YuAN President Vice-president Secretariat 1. Ministry of the Interior 2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs 3. Ministry of Military Affairs 4. Ministry of the Navy 5. Ministry of Finance 6. Ministry of Industries 7. Ministry of Education 8. Ministry of Communications 9. Ministry of Railways 10. Commission on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs 11. Commission on Overseas Chinese Affairs 12. National Health Service 13. Hopei-Chahar Political Council 14. Mongolian Local Autonomy Council 15. Weihaiwei Administration 16. Preparatory Commission for the Sikang Provincial Government 17. Boards of Trustees for Boxer Refunds 18. Committee on Efficiency

II. LEGISLATIVE YuAN President Vice-president Legislative Members Legislative Research Bureau Bureau of Statistics

III. JUDICIAL YuAN President Vice-president Commission for the Disciplinary Punishment of Public Functionaries Administrative Court Supreme Court Ministry of Justice

IV. EXAMINATION YuAN President Vice-president Examination Commission Ministry of Personnel

V. CONTROL YuAN President Vice-president Ministry of Audit

PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONS _Hsien_ Munic.i.p.alities Villages

The Executive _Yuan_ was headed, as were all the others, by a _yuan_ president (_yuan-chang_), a.s.sisted by a vice-president, a secretary-general, and a director of political affairs. The yuan included all the major executive ministries, and the formal meeting of the Executive _Yuan_ was a meeting of the _Yuan_ officers, the heads of the ministries, and other directing officials. Such meetings took place once a week and corresponded to cabinet meetings in Western countries.

The executive work of the entire government was performed by the Executive _Yuan_ and--through characteristic Chinese devices--the _Yuan_ Secretariat, divided into bureaus and committees, came to occupy a position of high strategic importance in Chinese government. All executive measures were funneled through the Secretariat, which cast them into proper form and determined whether or not they should be put on the _yuan_ agenda. It thus occupied a position not unlike that of the Grand Chancery and Grand Secretariat of the T'ang dynasty or of the Office of Transmissions under the Manchus. The Executive _Yuan_ combined within itself nine ministries: Interior (having charge of provincial and local government), Foreign Affairs, Military Affairs, Navy, Finance, Industries, Education, Communications, and Railways. Included were also a number of special commissions and agencies.

The Legislative _Yuan_ consisted of a president, a vice-president, and eighty-six members, with an extensive administrative staff attached to it. The _yuan_ was divided, as are parliaments, into committees, but it was not a representative body, nor able to enact laws independently of the other divisions of government. Its president's powers were so wide as to make the cameral organization of the _yuan_ more apparent than real and to reduce the _yuan_ to a legislative drafting and research agency. The Judicial _Yuan_ was made up of four establishments: Supreme Court, Administrative Court, Commission for the Disciplinary Punishment of Public Functionaries (dealing with the government personnel below political rank), and the Ministry of Justice. The Examination _Yuan_, composed of two divisions (Examination Commission and Ministry of Personnel) gave expression to the Chinese tradition of separate examining agencies. Its function was to provide a merit system applicable to the whole government staff, except those relatively few positions which were political in nature. Because of the difficulty of developing elaborate machinery under unusual circ.u.mstances, the Examination _Yuan_ did not establish for itself a high standard of accomplishment. Finally, the Control _Yuan_ served as a chamber of censors ent.i.tled to bring suit against dishonest or treacherous officials, and maintained a central Ministry of Audit. In the last few years of the Nanking regime it brought over two hundred and fifty cases to bar each year.

An informative picture of the practical workings of one of the key parts of the National Government, the Secretariat of the Executive _Yuan_, is given by Tsiang Ting-fu, the Chinese amba.s.sador to the Soviet Union and formerly one of the ranking officials of that _Yuan_:

The Bureau of General Affairs keeps the internal machinery of the Secretariat going. It receives the dispatches and distributes them among the sections. It manages the funds and looks after supplies.

The Bureau of Confidential Affairs handles confidential telegrams and keeps the secret codes.

The Secretaries in the Drafting Bureau draft doc.u.ments that require high literary finish, usually formal doc.u.ments.

The Reception Bureau takes care of callers and visitors and sees to it that dignitaries who come to the Executive Yuan for business or courtesy calls are accorded a due reception.

The Meetings Bureau arranges for all meetings held in, or under the auspices of, the Executive Yuan.

The Compilation and Translation Bureau watches over the periodical press, both Chinese and foreign.

The real political work is done in the Sections. Let us take up first political correspondence. A minister, governor, or mayor sends a dispatch to the Executive Yuan, asking for instructions in regard to, let us say, a problem in raising funds. It goes to Section 5. The head clerk and his a.s.sistants look up regulations, precedents, and other relevant facts and write a memorandum. The dispatch with the memorandum goes to the secretary or councillor in charge of the Section, who writes a minute suggesting a solution or approving a solution suggested by the head clerk. Then the dispatch, memorandum, and minute go to the Director of Political Affairs, who, taking into consideration political factors, renders a tentative decision for final approval by the Secretary-General. The clerical staff sticks to law, tradition, and precedent. Adjustments are usually made only by the ranks above. As the majority of problems are so-called routine problems, in connection with which the opinion of the clerical staff is usually sound, the ranks above usually accept the proposed solution. What is important and bothersome is the minority of unusual problems, for the treatment of which procedures are varied.

The sender of a dispatch dealing with an unusual problem may call, or send a representative to call, on the Secretary-General or the Director of Political Affairs before or simultaneously with the sending of the dispatch, giving a personal detailed explanation of the matter and sounding the opinion of the Executive Yuan as represented by the Secretary-General and the Director of Political Affairs. An agreed solution may be arrived at during the interview. In that case the correspondence will be only formal. But the parties involved may disagree, in which case the Secretary-General will courteously say that the matter must be referred to the President or to the Yuan meeting, and the Director has an additional solution of the problem by resorting to consultation with the Secretary-General. In some cases the Secretary-General and the Director will decide the matter during the interview whether the caller likes it or not.

Some unusual matters touch several jurisdictions, _i.e._, two or three ministries; or a number of provinces or cities; or both. The Executive Yuan then calls a meeting of representatives of the jurisdictions affected and the matter is threshed out there. The conclusions of such meetings may be referred to the President or to the Yuan meetings.

In dealing with unusual problems of primary importance the Secretary-General usually consults the President, and the Director of Political Affairs consults the Secretary-General in most cases and the President in some cases where the work is specifically a.s.signed to the Director by the President.

The average of dispatches (including telegrams) received and sent out daily by the Executive Yuan is about three hundred, of which number only two or three need to be referred to the President or the Yuan meeting, the rest being handled by the Secretariat without such reference.

The Secretariat on its part, by the order of the President as Chairman of the Yuan meeting, or on the initiative of the Secretary-General or at the suggestion of the Director of Political Affairs, sends dispatches to the ministries, commissions, provinces and munic.i.p.alities, in the form of decrees, ordinances, instructions, inquiries and requests.

The energies of the clerical staff are devoted entirely to the incoming and outgoing correspondence. About half of the time of the secretaries and councillors is devoted to correspondence and half to conferences. The sub-committees created by the Yuan meeting are numerous and are almost always convoked by the Secretariat. In a few cases the Secretary-General and the Director of Political Affairs, usually accompanied by a secretary or councillor, attend; in most cases, however a secretary or a councillor is designated as the Yuan's representative. The conclusions of such sub-committees are always reported back to the Yuan meeting.[5]