Article 53.—Within ten months of the date of this law being in force, the Provisional President should convene a National Convention. The organisation and the measures for election of such National Convention will be decided by the National Assembly.
Article 54.—The Constitution of the Republic of China will be decided by the said National Convention, and before the said Constitution comes into force this law will have the same force as the Constitution.
Article 55.—This law will be either added to or revised by three-fourths of the members of the National Assembly present at a quorum of two-thirds of the whole number, or by three-fourths of the members present at a quorum of four-fifths of the whole number, when the same is proposed by the Provisional President.
Article 56.—This law shall come into force when it is promulgated, and the rules of provisional government now in force will be cancelled when this law comes into force.
Recognition of the Powers came slowly. The Republican fanatics cried out in great volume and the alleged subsidised press still pursued the for and against of the national argument. However, in due course, with Yuan as President, the Government went ahead in endeavours to get money. The reader will probably know the actual eventualities as they touched the West internationally. There were still two parties, however, one with Sun at the head, the other with Yuan. Yuan Shih K'ai was a man cast in a distinctly different mould from Sun. Before we go on to read his general biographical sketch, as embodied in the next chapter, it is interesting to note how people were interesting themselves in him. The following, from a private letter published in New York, is culled from an American daily:—
"In 1884, when I went to China, Yuan was just succeeding the Manchu General in charge of the Chinese troops sent to Seoul after the troubles of 1882. He drove the Japanese out of Korea following the emeute of 1884, and on October 3, 1885, after visiting his patron, Li Hung-chang, he returned to Seoul as full Chinese representative, taking to himself the title of 'Resident' in the sense in which that title is used by the British in India, implying Chinese suzerainty.
"Yuan was without much education even for a Chinaman. He knew no English at all. Korea is as far as he ever ventured abroad, but the ten years there were a very valuable school for him.
"He was in my time just a big, brutal, sensual, rollicking Chinaman. Having vast powers, he frequently cut off the heads of Chinese gamblers and others, and I was an unwilling witness of some of these street side pastimes of his. He would imprison Korean gentlemen who objected to parting with their ancestral estates in order that they might be used to enlarge Yuan's palatial legation. He would not let a physician save the life of one of his soldiers in the emeute by amputating his arm, saying, "Of what good would a one-armed soldier be?" Yet he kept as a pensioner another soldier whose life was saved but who was useless as a trooper. He was extremely quick, quite fearless, very rash, yet given to consultation with Tang and others, and therefore inclined to be reasonable. He was altogether unscrupulous, but absolutely faithful and devoted to his patron and largely so to his friends. He would sacrifice an enemy or one who stood in his way, but would at the same time sacrifice himself readily for his patron.
"Nobody understands the meaning of the term 'arrogance' who didn't know Yuan in those years 1884-94. He was arrogance personified. He would not meet or associate with the Ministers of other Powers unless he was allowed to occupy a sort of throne and 'receive' them as though they were vassal envoys. At a Korean State dinner he always occupied the foot (one end) of the table, which then became the head."
[[1]] The China Press, Shanghai, December 8, 1911.