On the 4th March matters were brought to a climax by an open breach between President Li Yuan-hung and the Premier, General Tuan Chi-jui, at a Cabinet meeting regarding the procedure to be observed in breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany.  Although nearly a month had elapsed, no reply had been received from Berlin; and of the many plans of action proposed nothing had been formally decided.  Owing to the pressure Japan was exerting from Tokio to get China to come to a definite arrangement, popular anxiety was growing.  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.  The actual text of the German reply was as follows, and it will be seen how transparently worded it is: 

To the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China: 

Your excellency:  By the instructions of my home Government—­which reached me on the 10th inst.—­I beg to forward you the following reply to China’s protest to the latest blockade policy of Germany:—­

“The Imperial German Government expresses its great surprise at the action threatened by the Government of the Republic of China in its Note of protest.  Many other countries have also protested, but China, which has been in friendly relations with Germany, is the only State which has added a threat to its protest.  The surprise is doubly great, because of the fact that, as China has no shipping interests in the seas of the barred zones, she will not suffer thereby.