was composed entirely of anarchists, lose a great many of its supporting helpers and followers, and to give us the hope that in the next election we should be able to influence the voting enough to introduce some more loyal members into the board itself.
When the difficulties from this quarter had been overcome it seemed as though our chief danger had disappeared; but we had hardly time to take any satisfaction from our apparent progress before a new enemy was revealed right in the midst of our own organization. Unexpected conflicts developed between our republican, monarchist and socialist members and made us feel that the mechanism of our organization had been spoiled. It was only subsequently I learned that our enemies had invaded our very stronghold and had worked up an opposition. In spite of this, however, we continued all our regular activities, with the sole difference that we had great difficulty in carrying through our programme in the face of quarrels, intrigues and a veritable flood of critical oratory, which were the means employed by the opposition to discredit and weaken the Committee's authority. To give birth to the most insignificant regulation necessitated an excruciating labour of speeches, propositions and counter-propositions; and, as the Committee now numbered sixty-three members, this process in the "little parliament," as I dubbed it, consumed entirely too much time. A mass of important matters were held in abeyance by these filibustering methods. I realized fully our danger and clearly saw what it would mean if the direction of the civic life of the Far East should slip from our hands and events should be allowed to follow their chaotic course.
Under the pressing necessity of these unfavourable developments I decided to stage a coup d'etat and, after
